Overwatch’s Newest Battle Pass Rework Is Quietly Sticking It to Free Players

Blizzard revamped Overwatch's battle pass in season 4, and most of the changes are welcome, even long overdue — except for one. The new battle pass divides itself into tracks, where each track ends in a new skin and includes a smattering of other rewards along the way. The idea, as product director Chris McCabe said in a blog post, is to give you more control over the rewards you get. The kicker is that Blizzard's also moved a big chunk of the free (and even paid) currency to the very end of the pass. 400 gold Overwatch coins and 30 Mythic Prisms are only obtainable in the final track, and that track only unlocks after you've completed all the earlier tracks. It's the equivalent of having to reach tier 72 in older battle passes before you get a big chunk of free stuff. Blizzard is adopting NetEase's Marvel Rivals strategy and letting you revisit old battle passes whenever you like, but currency won't be included in rewards for old passes. It's a model that also resembles how Call of Duty's seasonal passes work. And while some are just happy that they can pick which skins they get first, quite a few more are not thrilled with the change. "That's kinda annoying sometimes i'd use a fe