Overwatch Fans Voice Disappointment Over Mei’s Winter Wonderland Skin, Blizzard Apologizes

Overwatch may currently be celebrating the season of goodwill and cheer with its Winter Wonderland event, but it appears as if not everyone is ready to embrace the Christmas spirit just yet. As was the case with the shooter’s Halloween and Summer Games promotions earlier this year, Blizzard’s latest limited-time event introduces several suitably themed character skins, sprays and voice lines that are only available during its duration, whereupon they’re made unavailable, presumably until the same period rolls around again in the following year. One such skin, however – Mei’s new get-up that sees her don a Santa hat and costume – hasn’t gone down all too well with fans, with many taking to the game’s forums to criticize its status as a Legendary skin.

As a general rule of thumb, Legendary skins drastically change the appearance of the character for which they’re made, but it seems as if Mei’s appearance doesn’t differ enough from her usual garb to justify the price of purchase. Rather than pass the issue off as a matter of personal taste, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has taken to the forums to directly address the misgivings.

“Sorry you are disappointed with Mei’s winter skin. We don’t have a specific rule for what makes something Legendary or Epic,” says Kaplan, adding that “we just sort of make a gut call based off of what we think is cool. Coolness is very subjective, and based off of the community reaction it seems like our gauge was off on this one.”

In justifying its classification as a Legendary skin, Kaplan said it was largely due to the development team completely redoing the “visual effects for Cryo-Freeze (we turned the ice block into a snowman). We thought that was pretty special and we had done it specifically based on community suggestions from months ago when people were speculating that we might have a winter event. Apparently, lots of people don’t agree with us and that’s ok.” Kaplan also allays concerns that Mei has missed her chance to get a worthy Legendary skin in the foreseeable future, stating the team has “something pretty awesome for her early next year.”

What say you, readers? Do you think the criticisms aimed at Mei’s Winter Wonderland skin are justified, or has this all just been blown out of proportion? Give us your two cents in the comments section below.