The new Overwatch Nyan Café skins claw their way to eye-watering prices

What's the most you've paid for an in-game cosmetic? Overwatch is looking to test your resolve with a fresh set of skins that are stretching the price point beyond anything we've seen in the multiplayer game before. The new Nyan Café bundle is headlined by a pair of outfits that Blizzard has dubbed 'ultra skins,' and it's certainly put a price tag on to match. The pink cat outfits for Sierra and Kiriko come with some extra touches around the edge like custom sounds and kill effects, but that hasn't been enough to convince the community of the dramatically increased cost.

The new line of 'Nyan Café' Overwatch skins are available in-game right now, but you'll need to have quite the stack of Overwatch Coins to get your hands on them. The complete bundle includes the two ultra skins on Kiriko and Sierra, new highlight intros for the pair, three legendary outfits for Orisa, Ashe, and Reaper, and a selection of other emotes, sprays, weapon charms, and name cards to fill out the list. It will cost you 9,900 Overwatch Coins. Getting only the items designed for either Kiriko or Sierra sets you back 4,500, while each of the ultra skins by themselves come in at 3,500.

For calculation purposes, 500 Overwatch Coins costs $5 / £4.39, and 1,000 is $10 / £8.39. There is some 'bonus currency' thrown in if you buy bigger bundles, but none of these give enough to get you to that 3,500 mark. If you don't already have any on your account, you'd therefore need to spend $35 / £29.56 for each ultra skin, excluding bundle savings. Spend $40 / £34.99 and you can reach the 4,500 bundle. Due to the way the tiers are structured, the best option for the full package is 11,800 Coins for $100 / £84.99, leaving you with 1,900 to spare (conveniently, this is the price of many modern legendary skins). Currently, you can earn a maximum of 600 Overwatch Coins for free from each of the seasonal battle passes.

Naturally, this has quickly become the main talking point among the community. On Reddit, user 'Lirodes32' posts, "And I thought $60 bundles were expensive." Similar topics fill the rest of the forum, with players pointing out that the new highlight intros for Kiriko and Sierra are just close-up camera shots of their emotes from the same bundle, rather than unique animations. Perhaps most telling, however, is 'ExtensionSoil3801,' who writes: "I think we're doomed. The literal first game of Overwatch I played and everyone has the pink cat skins…"

What makes these particular cosmetics 'ultra' (and therefore worth almost twice the price of legendary skins, according to Blizzard)? As far as I can tell, it's just the addition of unique sound effects and custom 'kill animations.' These are basically holograms that flash up when you defeat an enemy, which seem more distracting than entertaining. I can't say I'm convinced of the value proposition here, but ultimately I'm not the arbiter of aesthetics, and if people are prepared to pay, then we can expect more of these in the future.

I will give some credit where it's due for the five emotes, all of which have the featured characters playing with pet cats in fun and thematic ways (Sierra teases hers with a drone, for example, while Ashe distracts hers with a laser pointer). I don't think that justifies them also being incorporated as the highlight intros, however - and if Blizzard is going to do that, why not include the ones for Orisa, Reaper, and Ashe alongside the two co-stars?

Overwatch streamer 'Flats' sums up the community consensus best: "It's just legendary skins with some extra sounds on it and a kill animation. Normally skins are $19, now it's going to be $35? That is actually diabolical. There is no defending that. That is the price of a very good indie studio game." I certainly won't tell you how to spend your money, but I can safely say where I'd rather be putting mine.