Highlights

  • Overwatch 2 Season 11 introduces a Mythic Weapon skin for Reinhardt, causing concern over its impact on monetization.
  • Mythic Prisms are essential for obtaining Mythic Weapon skins and contribute to a potential trend of increasingly expensive in-game purchases.
  • The Bound Demon Mythic Weapon skin costs 50 Mythic Prisms, equivalent to $39.99 USD, which raises questions about its value compared to other paid cosmetics.

Overwatch 2's eleventh season is officially underway, featuring a Community Crafted Arcade mode, a fresh battle pass theme, and more. Excitingly, alongside the Mythic Calamity Empress Ashe skin, Blizzard unveiled its first-ever Mythic Weapon skin in the official Overwatch 2 Season 11 trailer. Though the armament isn't going to be released until July 23, the Mythic Weapon, Bound Demon, is set to launch with several compelling features.

Designated for Reinhardt, Overwatch 2's armor-clad, hammer-swinging tank, the Bound Demon skin has been garnering significant attention from the community. Unfortunately, while some players adore its fiery design, others are concerned about how this particular weapon skin will be unlocked. For instance, due to its Mythic rarity and subsequent requirement of Mythic Prisms to purchase, this could mark the start of a slippery slope for Overwatch 2's monetization system.

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Overwatch 2 is Doubling Down on Mythic Prisms

Overwatch 2's Mythic Prisms Could Be A Cause For Concern

Season 10 introduced both Mythic Prisms and a Mythic Shop, which in turn incited a major overhaul of the entire Mythic system. Before this update, Mythic skins could be unlocked by completing all base tiers of the Premium Battle Pass. However, following this change, Mythic skins, and all four of their customization levels, are now only obtainable via Mythic Prisms.

Mythic Prisms can only be procured through the Premium Battle Pass, purchasing packs, or by placing in esports tournaments such as June's Community Crafted Tournament.

As Blizzard doubles down on the importance of Mythic Prisms, this could start a potentially worrying trend of cosmetics like emotes, highlight intros, and souvenirs gaining Mythic-level status as well. While this could offer exciting options for variety and customization in more areas of the game, it might also push in-game purchases toward becoming the norm. As a free-to-play game with a live-service model, this wouldn't be an unsurprising direction for the developers to take, but it could come with repercussions like reducing the value of the free tiers in Overwatch 2's Battle Pass.

Reinhardt's Mythic Weapon Skin Comes With Several Pros and Cons

Reinhardt's Bound Demon weapon skin presents several advantages and disadvantages worth noting. For instance, the Mythic Weapon boasts unique visual and sound effects, including when using Earthshatter. However, with Season 11's launch, it's confirmed that Mythic Prisms are required to obtain Mythic Weapons.

The introduction of Mythic Weapon skins may present a concern for users who prioritize free-to-play experiences. Overwatch 2 already provides a level of weapon customization with options such as Golden and Jade skins, which are obtainable through free Competitive Points and Legacy Competitive Points. As such, while a Mythic tier for some cosmetics has its advantages, being restricted by Mythic Prisms could set a worrying precedent.

Interestingly, Mythic Weapon skins aren't the first paid weapon variants, considering that the Hard Light weapon skins from Season 8 and the Los Muertos weapon skins from Season 9 were also available for purchase in the shop. The largest difference is these weapons don't offer any new animations or sound effects.

Reinhardt's Bound Demon skin is currently set at 50 Mythic Prisms, equivalent to $39.99 USD. In contrast, the Hard Light and Los Muertos weapons, without being bundled, cost 1,200 Overwatch Coins, which is around $12.00 USD. Notably, if a person is buying coins, they can only purchase them in preset bundles of 500, 1000, 2,200, 5,700, and 11,600. This means the minimum requirement for 1,200 coins is $20.00 USD if a player doesn't already have existing coins in their account.

Ultimately, at seemingly double the cost of the other paid cosmetics, some players may wonder if Mythic Weapon skins are worth the investment. Because only 80 Prisms are granted per season and Mythic Skins cost as much as Mythic Weapons, Premium Battle Pass Overwatch 2 players won't be able to get both options in the same season without purchasing more. Hopefully, Blizzard has taken this into account as it carves a path for future weapon cosmetics.