Overwatch and Marvel Rivals copying each other’s homework is no secret, as time and time again, the games have pulled features from one another. On Marvel Rivals’ end, not only is a majority of its roster a mix-and-match of existing Overwatch heroes—a trend upcoming character Nightcrawler is rumored to continue by being a Lifeweaver clone—but its game modes are also similar as well. And on Overwatch’s end, LTMs like Haunted Masquerade have attempted to steal the fire from Marvel Rivals’ perk system, essentially hijacking the concept. Now, this tit-for-tat is influencing the monetization of the games, as Overwatch’s new event pass is pulled straight from Marvel Rivals’ wheelhouse.
To be clear, these games pulling from one another isn’t all that shocking when one considers the fact that Marvel Rivals studio NetEase handles support for the Chinese version of Overwatch, regularly dropping events and exclusive skins for the hero shooter. Still, for the many players dissatisfied with the state of Marvel Rivals (because of MCU tie-in events and controversial microtransactions), the idea that Overwatch is borrowing the latter hasn’t gone over well. Still, with one of Marvel Rivals’ most common tricks taken by its competition, it feels like only a matter of time before Overwatch “steals” another: gacha skin bundles.
Overwatch’s Taking Reign Event Controversy Explained
From a design standpoint, the Taking Reign event pass is structured in the same way as a majority of Marvel Rivals’ mini-battle passes. Players earn XP to progress this pass just as they would with a full one, moving through 24 tiers to earn themselves some extra cosmetics. While some players have been quick to point out that the value is better than a normal shop bundle, a majority of the player base has pushed back on this stance, comparing the $10 price tag to that of the main battle pass. Indeed, players need to spend the same amount for access to the Premium track of Taking Reign that they would on a full-length, 80-tier battle pass, and the difference in value is obvious.
Overwatch did try a mini event pass with Winter Wonderland 2023, but it was largely hated then, too. Even if players spent money, they couldn’t get every reward, an idea this Rivals-style pass thankfully scraps.
Find the odd one out before the timer hits zero.
Taking Reign features two hero skins and a Legendary weapon skin for Vendetta. Featured in the recent “In the Wolf’s Mouth” animated short that depicted Vendetta and Doomfist’s rematch, this weapon is the final unlock of the pass and is positioned as the main draw of the event. However, players aren’t happy with it, as they were hoping it would be a Mythic sword that features the same anima wolf from the short. Instead, it’s just a different sword that can be paired with any of Vendetta’s other skins.
Other issues with the mini-battle pass are that it offers normal loot boxes as opposed to Legendary boxes like the main pass, and it contains no premium currency like mythic prisms. Like Marvel Rivals’ mini-passes, there is a free skin to earn for Sigma, but again like Rivals, the free skin is an Epic recolor as opposed to something entirely new. This makes Doomfist’s new skin the only original hero skin in the entire $10 event pass, compared to the 8 offered in each main pass released for Blizzard’s hero shooter. With Doomfist and Vendetta being fairly niche characters, centering the pass around them also alienates a lot of the player base that could have considered it, leading to a lot of threads on platforms like Reddit about how disappointing and overpriced the event pass is.
Overwatch Embracing Event Passes Could Be the Calm Before the Storm
While the Overwatch community is pushing back against event passes, urging players not to buy into the premium track of Taking Reign so that mini-passes don’t stick around as Ultra skins have, it remains to be seen if this push will be successful. If the event pass does sell, though, it’s easy to imagine Blizzard looking to Marvel Rivals for more ways it can bring in revenue, and that means the gacha balloon events that have become more and more common within NetEase’s games. For those unfamiliar with these events, players can pop one of several balloons, getting a piece of the bundle they’re pulling for. If they get lucky, they could get the skin on their very first pull, unlocking it and the rest of the items with just 200 units.
While this approach sounds fair and fun in practice, the chances of pulling the skin on the very first balloon are incredibly low. Players often end up needing to spend slightly more than a normal bundle price, as they’re forced to pick up things like emojis that they’d typically skip out on. Then, there are added complaints about the gacha offerings pushing gambling on younger players, or from those who just want the skin outright, as needing to grab other pieces of the bundle one by one can feel like an unnecessary chore. Ultimately, many feel that the negatives outweigh positives like a potentially cheap bundle or the addictive “fun” of Marvel Rivals fans thinking they may get lucky on their next go.
While Marvel Rivals’ event passes are hit or miss with fans, most of its community strongly dislikes the balloon system. So, with Overwatch’s community having a more negative reaction to the initial event pass, it can safely be assumed that players would hate to see any kind of gacha skins even more. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility with Season 5.5 having just broken the seal.
- Released
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May 24, 2016
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Use of Tobacco, Violence (online interactions not rated)
- Engine
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Proprietary
