Us Westerners may have already celebrated the beginning of 2017 a few weeks ago, but the much more impressive Chinese New Year is about to begin, and Overwatch wants in on the action.
Beginning January 24, the next seasonal event for Blizzard’s shooter will kick off, presumably bringing with it the usual deluge of new character skins, sprays and voice lines, ripe for the picking. Of course, given the event’s inspiration, players can expect some suitably Asian themed costumes for their favorite heroes, two of which have already been revealed via Overwatch‘s social media channels. Check them out below.
🎊 Good luck and great fortune await! 🎊 pic.twitter.com/Az6XkHScV5
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 19, 2017
여러분♡ 새해 복 많이 받으세요! pic.twitter.com/vNEptK1SNb
— 오버워치 (@OverwatchKR) January 19, 2017
The skeptic in us believes Blizzard opted to use Mei in promotional art for the event due to the negative reception her Christmas costume received, but it’s only logical they went with her and nobody else, considering the character hails from China. D.Va, too, gets her moment in the limelight by way of Overwatch‘s Korean Twitter page, looking more colorful than ever. That should help to soothe the backlash over her recent nerfs, right? We’ll likely have to wait until the event starts in full to find out which other heroes have received some fancy new threads, but if they’re as impressive as those already shown, expect record numbers of Loot Boxes to be thrown open over its duration.
Overwatch‘s Chinese New Year event is the fourth limited-time event to be celebrated by Blizzard in-game, with last year’s Rio Olympics, Halloween and the aforementioned Christmas having been and gone. Well, until they roll around again this year, at least.
Normally, we’d have expected follow-up Valentine’s Day and Easter events to roll out after the Chinese New Year wraps up, but according to VG247, Blizzard has already ruled both of those out. We’ll have to wait and see what the developer thinks of next, but in the meantime, you’ll want to mark January 24 in your calendar.
