Blizzard has delayed the addition of Unvaulted Passes to Overwatch, Polygon reported. The system had been slated to arrive as part of Season 4's midcycle update, and will now come to the hero shooter at the start of Season 5.
Overwatch director Aaron Keller confirmed the delay in a September 4 blog post, saying the system needs more time in quality assurance so that it does not launch full of bugs.
We've decided to push Unvaulting to the start of Season 5 [to] give our amazing QA team extra time to test it as thoroughly as possible. No one likes bugs, and we want to do everything we can to ensure this long-desired feature is as bug free as possible when finally available to you all.
Blizzard confirmed in August that Unvaulted Passes were coming to the game. Polygon reported that they give players a route to emotes, sprays and other battle pass cosmetics they missed at the time, though some older forms of currency and mythic skins will not carry over into the new passes.
Overwatch's battle passes have been built around time-limited availability since 2022, a model Polygon traced back to Fortnite. The outlet noted that several live-service games have since loosened those restrictions, pointing to Marvel Rivals, whose passes do not expire once bought.
Polygon reported that the details of how buying and progressing through Unvaulted Passes will work are not yet known, and that Keller said in the post announcing the delay that Blizzard will have more information on how they fully work ahead of Season 5. Season 5 is expected to begin on October 6.