Beta is Back + New Progression System Detailed

Jeff Kaplan is hosting a new Developer Update video that discusses the Overwatch progression system. As players participate in matches, experience is earned that at certain intervals will result in being given a loot box that can contain a number of random cosmetic items including skins, sound files, player icons, emotes, sprays, victory poses and highlight intros. Each of these can come in common, rare, epic, and legendary quality.

In an interesting twist, if an item is awarded that a player already has in inventory, credits will instead be issued that can be spent in the Hero Gallery to unlock items not yet owned.

According to Kaplan and the videos below, this is just a start, is already in the now-ongoing restarted closed beta and the team is looking for player feedback.

Currently, you can gain experience by completing Quick Play and Play vs A.I. games. The amount of experience you earn will be determined by a variety of factors including overall participation, whether or not your team won, what medals and commendations you received, and more. Quick Play games will also award more experience than Play vs A.I. games to account for the difference in difficulty between the two modes.

Read the full video on the Overwatch site.