One of the original Overwatch’s most best-known features, loot boxes, are coming to Overwatch 2 as part of Season 15 on February 18–though you won’t be able to buy them directly as was originally the case.
Instead, loot boxes will return as part of Overwatch 2’s seasonal free and premium battle passes, as well as rewards for weekly and event challenges. Blizzard is looking to bring more transparency to the system as well, giving players more information in regards to item-drop chances and rarity guarantees.
An item of Rare or better quality has a chance to drop from every loot box. After opening five loot boxes, players will be guaranteed an Epic-quality item, and after 20 loot boxes, a guaranteed Legendary. Legendary loot boxes, one of which can be earned via the free battle pass (and two through the premium battle pass), have a 100% chance to reward a Legendary item.
Blizzard said it will release more details about the return of loot boxes next week, but it is already a bit of a full-circle moment for Overwatch. Whereas once loot boxes were maligned as a microtransaction thanks to their random rewards, Blizzard is now citing the community demand as the reason behind their return.
Overwatch 2 ditched loot boxes when it transformed from Overwatch 1 in 2022 and went free-to-play. Since then, fans have complained about a lack of rewards in Overwatch 2 compared to its predecessor, with the only real way to earn cosmetics for free coming from the free version of the game’s battle pass or the occasional event. In the original Overwatch, players regularly earned loot boxes just by leveling up their account through playing, which was done away with for the sequel.
The return of loot boxes is just one of the surprises Blizzard had in store as part of its recent Overwatch 2 Spotlight livestream. Also coming as part of Season 15 is the addition of Perks, gameplay-augmenting choices for each Overwatch 2 hero that players will get to choose over the course of a match. Blizzard additionally detailed a new third-person, round-based mode coming in Season 16 called Stadium that transforms Overwatch 2 into something closer to Valve’s still unreleased Deadlock or even Counter-Strike.
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