Summary
Overwatch 2’s seasonal events are a huge part of community engagement with the title, and the annual Winter Wonderland occasion is one of the most thematically vibrant events that the franchise holds. 2023’s take on the Winter Wonderland event is expected to come into full swing on December 19, with festive cosmetics already starting to pop up in the in-game store.
While the full breadth ofOverwatch 2’s 2023 Winter Wonderland content will become more obvious over the coming days, the new skins that are available for purchase are already flagging up some warranted criticisms of the event. These primarily concern the newly-released skins for the playable heroes Kiriko and Pharah. Both of these cosmetics fall into the controversial trappings of recolored skins thatOverwatchhas had to contend with for some time.
Overwatch 2’s Pharah and Kiriko Winter Wonderland Skins Follow a Problematic Pattern
Overwatch 2’s recently launched Season 8is gearing up to be a massive event for the title, overlapping with this year’s Winter Wonderland. Aside from a range of new maps and game modes that tie into the season’s “Call of the Hunt” theme, and even a brand-new tank hero, players will also soon be able to enjoy some festive-themed limited content.
This year’sWinter Wonderland event forOverwatch 2will likely also include a range of game modes, but the winter-themed skins for the event have already been released. In total, these are the Legendary skins that are confirmed for 2023’s Winter Wonderland event:
There are a fair amount of skins for 2023’sWinter Wonderland, with many of them being tied to this year’sWinter Fair Event pass forOverwatch 2. While this might seem like a positive, the associated skins for Pharah and Kiriko leave a glaring stain on this year’s winter cosmetic collection.
The Nutcracker Pharah and Festive Kirko skins are both available in theOverwatch 2store for 1900OverwatchCoins each, meaning players will have to spend around $20 to gain access to either of them. This is mainly an issue due to the fact that both skins are recolors of pre-existing skins, greatly reducing their impact as original designs.
Kiriko’s Festive skin is a simple recolor of the pre-existing Timekeeper skin, while Pharah’s is a recolor of her previous Enchanted Armor skin. This has already drawn a lot of criticism, and this decision is made more bizarre by the fact thatOverwatchfaced a similar controversy in 2016.
While the main models of these skins are recolored, they still boast unique weapon and ability differences that slightly increase their value.
The DPS hero Mei received the Mei-rry Legendary skin for2016’s Winter Wonderland event, which itself was a recolor of her default look with a simple Santa hat added. The fact that this controversy has been repeated for another Winter Wonderland event is a worrying development; the presence of two recolored Legendary skins only makes matters worse for Blizzard’s optics. While there is still a lot to celebrate for 2023’s Winter Wonderland event, a repeat of 2016’s recolor controversy is the last thing that the upcoming event needs.
Overwatch 2
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Overwatch 2 is an always-on and ever-evolving free-to-play, team-based action game set in an optimistic future, where every match is the ultimate 5v5 battlefield brawl. Power up your railgun and disrupt the battlefield as Sojourn, or yield your axe and command attention as Junker Queen. Battle to take control of a robot and move it toward the enemy base in the new Push Mode. Bring the fight to new destinations across the globe in iconic locations like New York, Rome, Monte Carlo and Rio. Daily challenges and frequent updates mean there is always something new to play.
