Director's Take: Battle Pass Revamp

Hi, everybody! I know we'd all like to slow down the pace of this summer (where did the past two months go!?) but game development waits for no one...not even me! We have so, so many cool things to show you over the coming months and our whole team is looking forward to seeing you at BlizzCon.

While you may have to wait until September for that, we have something super exciting to talk about today. A revamp to the Battle Pass system has been one of the Overwatch community's most-requested changes and we have some great news: Battle Pass Revamp will be heading your way when Season 4 launches on August 11!

I'd like to hand the proverbial mic over to Chris McCabe, our Product Director, to explain the new system and how our team made it happen.

Introducing Battle Pass Revamp

Thanks, Aaron! I'm excited to make my Director's Take debut by introducing Overwatch's revamped Battle Pass system. We're all part of the Overwatch community right along with you, which is why creating a fulfilling, fun experience both inside and outside of matches is extremely important to us.

Battle Pass (BP) Revamp was inspired by your community feedback and our own internal push to think a bit outside the box. Overwatch has changed a lot since the first Battle Pass launched in 2022, as have the needs of our community. So, we wanted to take a fresh look at the BP system and address some of the most frequent feedback items we hear about from you. Let's review the changes!

The new BP system is built around two ideas: Personalization and Player Agency. With more than 50 Heroes in the Overwatch roster, we recognize that every Battle Pass may not have rewards for Heroes that you're most excited about. Or if there is a specific reward you do want, its placement within the Battle Pass might require more time to earn than you have available to play in the season. We'd like to address both feedback points with the new BP system.

The biggest change we're making with BP Revamp is moving away from the 100% linear Battle Pass system we currently have to one that breaks up the 80 tiers of the Battle Pass into several shorter "tracks." This gives you the option to pick the order in which you complete these tracks!

After completing a quick introductory track each season and unlocking a Legendary cosmetic-in Season 4, that's the Cyber Mechanic D.Va skin-you'll now get to choose 1 of 5 "tracks" (think of a track as a single, 8-10 tier "page" from our current Battle Pass) to immediately focus your efforts on. A Legendary or Epic skin lies at the end of each track.

You earn Battle Pass XP as you do normally, but your XP will now be applied to the "track" you've selected. After you complete a track, you can then pick the next track you want to progress, and repeat this process until all 5 tracks are complete. Play through one last track and you'll finish the 80-tier pass; you'll then start earning the usual prestige titles after that.

It's important to call out that the number of tiers in the Battle Pass isn't changing and you won't have to work harder to complete your Battle Pass. Instead, our goal is to give you more control over what rewards you unlock, and in what order. For example, if you're a Support player, you may want to unlock a Brigitte skin as soon as possible. By selecting the track that features Brigitte's skin first, you'll now earn a new skin for our cat-loving engineer far faster than if her skin was placed in, say, tier 70 of the previous Battle Pass design. You can also change which track is active at any time, giving you total control over which rewards you want to progress toward.

And, what if you're not interested in any of the skins featured at the end of those tracks and wish you had something for one of your favorite Heroes instead? We're hoping our new "Tier Hack" system will offer a uniquely Overwatch solution to your problem.

Hack That Track

In addition to its normal benefits, purchasing the Premium version of the Battle Pass will now give you another unique bonus: 1 charge of Sombra's most iconic "ability," the Tier Hack.

With the new "Tier Hack" system, any skin at the end of a track can be "hacked" (replaced) with a different Legendary skin of your choice from a curated list of past Overwatch Shop and Loot Box skins. Each season, this curated pool of skins will refresh, offering new skin choices to "hack" with each new Battle Pass. This pool will always include skins for Heroes in all 3 roles, and it's our goal to also represent Heroes that may not show up in seasonal Battle Passes as often. Season 4 is launching with 12 Legendary skins in the curated "Tier Hack" pool, pulling from some fan-favorite skin collections of the past.

So, if you're a Tank player who's not interested in the Damage and Support skins in your Battle Pass, you can use your Tier Hack to swap that Cassidy skin with one you'll appreciate more. Perhaps a Legendary Reinhardt skin with more crayon and duct tape than chrome? Up to you!

Again, important parts of the Battle Pass system-like the overall length/time commitment and opportunity to earn currency-aren't changing. That's intentional. We're not out to reinvent the wheel! But with this new "track" and "Tier Hack" update, we're hoping to give you more control over the goals you pursue and how you progress.

New Look And Feel

Earlier this year, we launched our big Overwatch UI/UX update, which upgraded the UI across most of the game. The Battle Pass system didn't quite make the cut at the time, so we're excited to bring that leveled up experience here with BP Revamp. Our amazing team of UI artists, designers and engineers on Team 4 set out to make the Battle Pass Revamp experience more immersive, exciting, and fresh. This update brings new visual effects, updated graphics, and even animated backgrounds that will coordinate with each Season. This was a true team project and we can't wait for you to see the changes.

Also, since seeing things often makes them easier to understand than reading about them, we'll walk you through BP Revamp during our upcoming Season 4 livestream along with other great updates coming in Season 4.

We can't wait for you to jump into the new Battle Pass system when Season 4 launches, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. Oh, and we also have other exciting BP updates coming in the not-so-distant future as well, including our Legacy Battle Pass Unvault system, arriving at the Season 4 midseason in September. Stay tuned for details on those!

Thanks for having me! Until next time (as Aaron says) let's make a great game!