Analyst Believes That Both OVERWATCH & BLACK OPS 4's "Blackout" Battle-Royale Will Go Free-To-Play This Year
According to video-game industry analyst Michael Pachter, both Overwatch and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout will go free-to-play within the year. Find out more...
Fortnite is one of the biggest video-games right now, and that's in-part due to it being totally free-to-play. Well, according to an industry analyst, two similar games are soon set to follow in Fortnite's footsteps.
GamesIndustry recently collected the predictions of a plethora of video-games industry analysts. One analyst in particular, Michael Pachter, stated that he believes both Blizzard's team-based, first-person-shooter Overwatch as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's battle-royale mode "Blackout" will become free-to-play within the year.
Speaking on behalf of Wedbush Industries, Pachter explained that Overwatch will do so to enlarge its current audience. It'll go free-to-play amid June, that being the game's third anniversary, according to Pachter.
I think that the 18 Overwatch League owners have been assured by Blizzard that it will expand the audience for Overwatch. The most expedient way to do this is to make the core game free-to-play in order to attract tens of millions of new users, who ostensibly will convert to OWL viewers. I expect this by mid-June (the third anniversary of the launch of the original game. Disgruntled players who bought the core game will likely be compensated by being given free stuff (skins or other cosmetic items).
Whereas Blackout will go FTP to promote the next Call of Duty title - and no doubt to keep its player-base alive, given that many will likely move on to the next instalment in the series. “Blackout will go FTP at least a month prior to the launch of next year's Call of Duty, in order to promote the new game." Pachter also stated that he believes the announcement of a new BioShock game is forthcoming - for more on that click here.
What do you think of Pachter's predictions? Would you like to see either of these games go free-to-play?