Anyone who knows the history of Overwatch knows that it didn’t start out the way it ended up. In fact, the game wasn’t a team-based shooter, but rather, a “next-gen MMORPG” called Project Titan. But, after years of development, Blizzard scrapped the project and remade much of it to become the game you all know and love now. Since its launch, Overwatch has won numerous awards, has had many updates, and has gotten over 35 million players, and counting. So yeah, it’s a major success.
But, as in most stories, the team behind it, or more accurately, the publisher behind it wasn’t sure about the model the game had. Not the visual model, mind you, but rather, the pay model. For while the game would be the price of a regular game at the time ($59.99), the other way the publisher was going to make money was via the cosmetic Loot Boxes. And according to Total Biscuit, that caused some concern:
Not willing to say who at Blizzard told me, but prior to launch they were seriously concerned the money would run it and we’re having to push back against selling characters. They had to actually fight for cosmetic only boxes with the business folks.
In Activision’s mind apparently, it wasn’t going to work having these “simple” Loot Boxes be a good source of income. Very ironically, not only were they wrong, they were wrong in spades. In fact, it’s so successful that it’s actually causing problems with some who view Loot Boxes like these as “bad for the industry”. Yet, you can’t deny its success.
This is also an insight into how probably every video game publisher thinks when it comes to releasing a AAA title. They want to do their best to guarantee success and profit, and are willing to do extreme things to make it happen if necessary.
