Blizzard isn't "satisfied" with Overwatch 2's F2P grind either and will bring back free event skins

Blizzard knows you haven't been entirely happy with how Overwatch 2 has made the jump to free-to-play, and they're making some changes to progression and implementing more free skins for events.

"I could say a lot here, but I think a good place to start is saying that we aren’t completely satisfied with how everything feels right now," executive producer Jared Neuss says in a blog post. In short, the devs want to give you ways to feel like you're accomplishing something in every play session, and give you "new accomplishments to chase outside of your Competitive Rank and Battle Pass level."

In concrete terms, every event in Overwatch 2 Season 2 (expected to launch on December 6) will feature a skin you can earn on top of the existing, expected types of cosmetic rewards. The devs also say that Twitch drops will continue to provide free skins, as well. But it seems these Season 2 freebies are a bit of a stopgap for bigger changes to come.

"For Season 3 and beyond, we’re looking at a mix of Battle Pass changes, more interesting Challenges to pursue, and more exciting play-focused progression systems for you all to dig into," Neuss says. "We’ll be able to talk about some of these changes soon, but other changes may take more time to lock-in."

Overwatch 2 currently offers most of its Battle Pass XP through daily and weekly challenges. There's also match completion XP and bonuses you can get from playing with friends or participating in certain events, but the vast majority of progression is tied to completing challenges. That means you might not be making much progress in a session if you're not specifically targeting those challenges. It seems Blizzard is keen to fix that issue in particular.

Perhaps the larger problem, though, is that most new skins are pricey real-money items and the grind to earn premium currency in-game is a very long one. Completing 11 weekly challenges gets you about $0.60, and desirable skins can cost upwards of $20. Some players have found better returns on their time investment through WoW gold farming.

Overwatch 2's first big balance patch suffered a last-minute delay, but it's finally going live today - which means Mei is back out of Blizzard prison.