Overwatch 2 players have a theory that Blizzard dismantled a Cyberpunk-themed battle pass so that it could sell many of the skins individually. Overwatch 2 has now been available for over two weeks and many players have already made substantial progress in Season 1's battle pass. The battle pass is without a theme, though the final Cyberdemon Genji skin and a Kiriko skin halfway through are cyberpunk. But recent store additions have Overwatch 2 players questioning if Blizzard did something questionable.
The Overwatch 2 battle pass for its first season does not have an official theme, at least that's been publicly stated. It would be easy to believe it was cyberpunk-themed, however. A significant amount of content in the battle pass is very clearly associated with cyberpunk. There's at least 20 clear cyberpunk-themed unlocks, including the Cybermari ornament at level 2, Omnicode namecard at 38, Hinotori player icon at 48, Hologram victory pose for Roadhog at 59, Robo Thumb souvenir at 74, and over a dozen voicelines that all loosely relate to cyberpunk.
It took a recent Overwatch 2 store leak and premium skin rotation for players to begin getting suspicious, however. The leak confirmed that, in addition to the Cyberdemon Genji and Hinotori Kiriko skins in the battle pass, there were five other cyberpunk skins not in the battle pass that Blizzard planned to sell at a premium. The Sojourn Cyber Detective skin went on sale this past week, Cyberhog Roadhog and Cybermonk Zenyatta are available this week, and both Hanzo and Widowmaker have Legendary cyberpunk skins yet to be released.
Who else thinks these were originally supposed to be in the "cyberpunk" themed Battlepass from Overwatch
The argument Overwatch 2 players are making, particularly in Reddit's Overwatch community, is that Blizzard may have decided to remove these cyberpunk skins from the battle pass and sell them for a premium instead. The harshest accusations go so far as saying Blizzard intentionally devalued its battle pass, which would have had six total Legendary cyberpunk skins, to charge more through the premium skin shop and set overall low expectations for future battle passes. Suffice to say, some Overwatch 2 players are incredibly skeptical of Blizzard's monetization efforts.
It should be made clear that there's no real evidence of these allegations, outside the existence of the cyberpunk skins being sold in Overwatch 2's shop right now. There's no indication Blizzard changed its plans for the battle pass, that these skins were ever intended to be anything but premium offerings, or that it removed content from the battle pass. The theories within the Overwatch 2 community likely only reflect player frustrations and a lack in trust in free-to-play game monetization.
It's not uncommon for free-to-play games to mix earnable rewards with premium offerings. For example, Fortnite's recent Dragon Ball Z event allowed players to earn sprays and a Shenron glider, but the skins for Goku, Vegeta, and other characters were premium. Apex Legends similarly held a recent Gaiden event with skins inspired by One Piece, Evangelion, and Naruto, but they had to be bought individually or through premium loot boxes. In other words, Overwatch 2's battle pass looks very similar to other games' monetization.
Overwatch 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.