Again in 2023, Overwatch harnessed the dread energy of Okay-Pop, releasing a collaboration with Le Sserafim that included a debut track, 5 hero skins, and a brand new sport mode. Loads has modified within the final couple of years, however one factor that has stayed steadfast is the Overwatch group’s love for Okay-pop collaborations, as we’ll be getting an entire new Le Sserafim occasion subsequent week.
“In terms of returning collaborations, we by no means say by no means,” Aimee Dennett, affiliate director of product administration, tells me. “We do not need to deliver one thing again only for the sake of bringing one thing again, however there is no prior collaboration the place we would say, ‘Oh, we’ll by no means do this once more.'”
The upcoming collab with Le Sserafim will function recolours for all the unique skins from the 2023 occasion and supply 5 new themed skins for gamers to snag. This time, the heroes attending the Le Sserafim live performance shall be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Similar to the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 group select the most effective heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, and so they can choose characters that they like enjoying or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You already know, they’re impressed by a whole lot of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually cherished Juno after they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we focus on fairly carefully with them.”
So, Juno was just about a dead-set from the beginning, however Ash was additionally one of many first picks for the collaboration, because of a cameo within the Excellent Night time Overwatch 2 cinematic. In the direction of the top of the video, we see Ash’s loyal omnic companion, B.O.B., working as a safety guard on the Le Sserafim live performance: “We thought, ‘God, we’ve got to make {that a} pores and skin, ‘” Dennett says. “So after all, Ash bought a pores and skin this time round.”
The upcoming collab with Le Sserafim will function recolours for all the unique skins from the 2023 occasion and supply 5 new themed skins for gamers to snag. This time, the heroes attending the Le Sserafim live performance shall be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Similar to the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 group select the most effective heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, and so they can choose characters that they like enjoying or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You already know, they’re impressed by a whole lot of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually cherished Juno after they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we focus on fairly carefully with them.”
So, Juno was just about a dead-set from the beginning, however Ash was additionally one of many first picks for the collaboration, because of a cameo within the Excellent Night time Overwatch 2 cinematic. In the direction of the top of the video, we see Ash’s loyal omnic companion, B.O.B., working as a safety guard on the Le Sserafim live performance: “We thought, ‘God, we’ve got to make {that a} pores and skin, ‘” Dennett says. “So after all, Ash bought a pores and skin this time round.”
Some characters are simpler than others to create an informal outfit for.
Dion Rogers, Overwatch 2 artwork director
Whereas the lineup of skins is fairly nice, I nonetheless can not help however really feel like we’re lacking out on a Roadhog Okay-pop pores and skin. Final time, Junkrat bought an honorary Le Sserafim pores and skin regardless of not showing within the cinematic, so I used to be holding out hope that he attended the live performance along with his silent buddy. However giving Roadhog an informal Okay-pop pores and skin is not as simple as I would prefer to think about.
“Some characters are simpler than others to create an informal outfit for,” Rogers says. “A variety of characters have a base pores and skin with a whole lot of armor and weaponry, and so we have to keep their silhouette and the learn for gameplay causes. So, there are lots of characters which might be tougher than others to deliver all the way down to a extra informal outfit. Reinhardt, for instance, is a really tough character. What’s a traditional day for Reinhardt?
“Roadhog can be fairly exhausting. Typically, the character’s lack of armor additionally makes it tough. Having some sort of place to begin simply makes it so much simpler to take care of their silhouettes and their gameplay reads whereas, you understand, placing on a brand new outfit.”
Altering the silhouette of a personality could be extremely damaging in Overwatch 2. More often than not, you solely catch fleeting glimpses of heroes mid-game, and the fights are so quick that gamers want to have the ability to establish heroes and their talents immediately. Voice traces might help with this—I now have a direct reflex to fade as Moira if I hear “Hammer Down”—however the visible factor remains to be extremely vital.
“So Mercy, for instance, her wings are a key a part of her silhouette,” Rogers explains. “So typically, if we discuss to a collaborator and so they’re like, ‘Oh, can we take away the wings?’ We’re like, ‘Oh, no.'” Seeing Mercy with out her wings may very well be fairly jarring at first as it is a fast indicator that the majority gamers subconsciously search for throughout matches. However you’d additionally must hold different visible options just like the animation for her rez skill in order that the enemy group is aware of what is going on on and that they should attempt to interrupt it.
Fortunately, as this was Overwatch 2’s second collaboration with Le Sserafim, none of those points actually got here up. “That is what makes the second collaboration with Le Sserafim actually enjoyable as a result of they actually perceive this facet already going into it,” Rogers says. “So a ton of our conversations grow to be about style and what’s cool to make, as a substitute of overcoming the technical features.”
Blizzard Korea Studio is the group accountable for all of those Le Sserafim skins, and so they appear ideally suited to the job. “These guys are so in contact with style influences and the scene there, they grow to be the right match to do one thing like this,” Rogers says. “Clearly, they included a bunch of hip hop and road put on this time. They’re capable of see the developments there and apply them to the skins.”
The primary set of Le Sserafim skins have been actually cool, however these new ones clearly have extra real-world influences. They’re additionally fairly experimental with the character design, with out altering vital signifiers of the heroes. Illari’s pores and skin is especially transformative, a lot in order that I needed to do a double take once I first noticed it.
The brand new skins additionally comprise a few Easter eggs, one in every of which was made by one of many members of Le Sserafim. “The little plushie that is connected to Mercy’s key chain is definitely a personality design from Sakura, one of many Le Sserafim artists,” Dennett says. D.Va’s spiky bun is one thing that the artists over at Blizzard Korea Studio picked from present developments, and the RGB weapon glow is impressed by the neon aesthetic in Le Sserafim’s Loopy music video.
Regardless of the technical points defined above, Overwatch 2 has been pushing the boat out in the case of skins for a while now. All of it actually began with the brand new mythic skins that have been launched in Overwatch 2’s battle move, just like the Reaper Anubis pores and skin or the Widowmaker Spellbinder mythic, which each added particle results to skins and gave Blizzard artists the chance to experiment in ways in which beforehand simply weren’t obtainable. Since then, we have additionally seen particle results in some legendary skins, like the cash spilling out of Soldier: 76’s bag within the Heist pores and skin.
“As we go on with Overwatch, we needed to truly be somewhat bit extra transformative with skins,” Rogers says. Earlier than, the group was nearly too beholden to conforming to a strict set of pointers of what was doable and what wasn’t. “It created a smaller field for us to work in. So now we simply sort of break free from {that a} bit greater than we often do. There’s this concept to be as transformative as doable whereas maintaining the id of the hero. In order that’s why you are beginning to see a bit extra of us enjoying with VFX.”
Overwatch has at all times had actually nice skins— Ana’s Wasteland pores and skin, Genji’s Oni pores and skin, and D.Va’s Shin-Ryeong pores and skin are only a few standout examples among the many outdated classics. Nevertheless it’s nice to see that nearly 10 years after its launch, the Overwatch group remains to be experimenting with kinds and pushing for even higher designs.