According to recent rumors, Overwatch may be going the free-to-play route sometime in the near future. Originally released in May of 2016, Blizzard's team based character-driven shooter is strongly suspected to receive a sequel announcement at BlizzCon 2019, the annual celebration Blizzard holds for their fans. Although news leading up to the festivities has been somewhat muted when compared to previous years, thanks in part to Blizzard's banning of a Hearthstone player for supporting Hong Kong protesters during a post-game interview, fans of Blizzard's many properties are still looking forward to new game announcements.
Even with the trending #BlizzardBoycott movement, many players are expecting news about their favorite game franchises to be unveiled during this weekend's BlizzCon celebrations, which will take place Friday, November 1st and Saturday the 2nd. Fans are anticipating the long-awaited announcement of Diablo 4, and many people feel like this event is Blizzard's last chance to get back in player's good graces, especially after cancelling Overwatch's Nintendo Switch launch event earlier this month amid the Hearthstone controversy, which has most recently seen Blizzard losing an Esports sponsor over the company's actions.
As reported by Game Rant, multiple rumors have surfaced which indicate Overwatch will be turning into a free-to-play title "from now on," according to the often-accurate Overwatch leaker Metro_OW. The user later clarified their previous statement on Twitter, saying the move to free-to-play might begin at BlizzCon 2019 or may not occur until Overwatch 2 actually comes out.
With the original Overwatch only just having been released on the Nintendo Switch, it's unlikely Blizzard would immediately turn around and let other people jump in for free after so recently charging $39.99 for the game's Legacy Edition. Other leaks in the past have suggested the rumored upcoming Overwatch 2 will simply replace the first game, similar to how Fortnite Chapter 2 blew up and erased the world of Fortnite Seasons 1-10, and once that occurs the free-to-play mechanics would then begin to kick in afterwards.
It would make sense if the original Overwatch did switch to some sort of free-to-play model, although there would likely be heavy backlash from a majority of fans worried about continued, excessive monetization policies in their games. With more and more AAA video game titles ditching loot boxes for some sort of subscription-based live service Battle Pass system, Overwatch 2 could very well adopt one of these policies instead of going the now-traditional route of upfront payments and in-game microtransactions, even though most players would probably prefer it if their games were still simple one-time purchases packed with content upon release.