Overwatch Mercy
Overwatch character Mercy in a screenshot from the game. Blizzard

Today (24 May) marks the release of Blizzard's highly anticipated first person shooter Overwatch on PS4, Xbox One and PC. It is a shooter based on the various abilities of a wide range of characters suited to different playstyles and in-game situations. It also has microtransactions.

Now the game is out in the wild, full details on how the game's microtransactions work and how much players can spend on them have been revealed. Micro-payments in Overwatch take the form of Loot Boxes, which include four cosmetic items.

These items can be new character skins, emotes, victory poses, lines of dialogue, weapon sprays highlight intros or credits, which are used to unlock specific items. These come in Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary varieties and do not directly impact the finely balanced gameplay Blizzard hopes will make Overwatch the next big pro-gaming phenomenon.

Players are able to buy multiples of these Loot Boxes, up to a total of 50.

  • Two boxes – £1.59 / $1.99
  • Five boxes – £3.99 / $4.99
  • 11 boxes – £7.99 / $9.99
  • 24 boxes – £15.99 / $19.99
  • 50 boxes – £31.99 / $39.99

Loot Boxes can be purchased through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and through Battle.net for the PC version of the game.

Overwatch looks primed to be an enormous success after a very successful open beta which attracted more uses than those for Star Wars Battlefront, Destiny and Tom Clancy's The Division. It also has a thriving fan community already, and is hugely popular in the cosplaying community.

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