Some early UI images from Overwatch 2 have been shown off online via Artstation, an online art portfolio platform where artists from a variety of backgrounds show off their work. Originally caught by Attack of the Fanboy, It’s here that Jayson Kirby – former UI designer at Activision Blizzard – published a variety of early UI designs from the upcoming team FPS.
This includes a showcase of the main menu featuring a battle pass option, weekly challenges, player endorsement levels, as well as a variety of new end of game screen. While these screens are from a developmental version of the game that is quite old by now, at least two years old by Jayson’s own admission, it may provide hints towards the direction Overwatch 2 is headed.
A battle pass seems like a natural step forward for Overwatch 2, as it’s progression feature that many of live service games in the field have embraced openly at this point. With Overwatch, it did often feel like obtaining that one cosmetic you really wanted felt a tad dire. At Least with a battle pass, there would be clearer goals people could work towards.
Funnily enough, it was roughly two years ago that Jeff Kaplan – former game director on Overwatch – sat down in an interview with PCGamesN to talk about Overwatch and shared their thoughts on battle passes. “I think battle passes are cool. Putting monetisation to the side, a battle pass is a fun engagement mechanism.
If you look at a game like Diablo 3, they have what’s called the Season Journey, which is, in essence, a battle pass. It’s not monetised in any way, it’s just a bunch of cool content – these are the things you should be doing in the game and if you do, we’re gonna reward you. I think that’s an awesome system.”
With this in mind, the revelation that a battle pass was present in early UI designs isn’t too surprising, although actually seeing it vs having Jeff speak on its merits are night and day. As it stands, we’ll just have to wait until official word drops to see whether the feature makes the cut.
For more Overwatch 2 news, check out our report on the closed beta happening later this month on April 26. Plus, we wrote a feature a while back on what games could be coming to Game Pass – Overwatch is a big contender!
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