Again in 2023, Overwatch harnessed the dread energy of Ok-Pop, releasing a collaboration with Le Sserafim that included a debut music, 5 hero skins, and a brand new sport mode. Quite a bit has modified within the final couple of years, however one factor that has stayed steadfast is the Overwatch workforce’s love for Ok-pop collaborations, as we’ll be getting a complete new Le Sserafim occasion subsequent week.
“In relation to returning collaborations, we by no means say by no means,” Aimee Dennett, affiliate director of product administration, tells me. “We do not need to carry one thing again only for the sake of bringing one thing again, however there is no prior collaboration the place we might say, ‘Oh, we’ll by no means do this once more.'”
The upcoming collab with Le Sserafim will characteristic 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 might be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Identical to the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 workforce pick the very best heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, they usually can decide characters that they like taking part in or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You realize, they’re impressed by loads of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually liked Juno after they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we focus on fairly intently 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 Evening 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 to make {that a} pores and skin, ‘” Dennett says. “So after all, Ash received a pores and skin this time round.”
The upcoming collab with Le Sserafim will characteristic 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 might be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Identical to the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 workforce pick the very best heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, they usually can decide characters that they like taking part in or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You realize, they’re impressed by loads of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually liked Juno after they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we focus on fairly intently 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 Evening 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 to make {that a} pores and skin, ‘” Dennett says. “So after all, Ash received 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 Ok-pop pores and skin. Final time, Junkrat received 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 Ok-pop pores and skin is not as simple as I might prefer to think about.
“Some characters are simpler than others to create an informal outfit for,” Rogers says. “Plenty of characters have a base pores and skin with loads of armor and weaponry, and so we have to preserve their silhouette and the learn for gameplay causes. So, there are a lot of characters which can be tougher than others to carry right down to a extra informal outfit. Reinhardt, for instance, is a really troublesome character. What’s a standard day for Reinhardt?
“Roadhog can be fairly arduous. Typically, the character’s lack of armor additionally makes it troublesome. Having some sort of start line simply makes it quite a bit simpler to take care of their silhouettes and their gameplay reads whereas, you realize, placing on a brand new outfit.”
Altering the silhouette of a personality can 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 right away. Voice strains may help with this—I now have a right away reflex to fade as Moira if I hear “Hammer Down”—however the visible component 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 they usually’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 have to maintain different visible options just like the animation for her rez skill in order that the enemy workforce 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 develop into about trend and what’s cool to make, as a substitute of overcoming the technical features.”
Blizzard Korea is the workforce liable for all of those Le Sserafim skins, they usually appear ideally suited to the job. “These guys are so in contact with trend influences and the scene there, they develop into 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 in a position to see the tendencies there and apply them to the skins.”
The primary set of Le Sserafim skins had 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 include a few Easter eggs, certainly one 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 picked from present tendencies, 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 on the subject of skins for a while now. All of it actually began with the brand new mythic skins that had been launched in Overwatch 2’s battle go, 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 out there. 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 a bit bit extra transformative with skins,” Rogers says. Earlier than, the workforce was virtually 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 identification of the hero. In order that’s why you are beginning to see a bit extra of us taking part in 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 just some standout examples among the many outdated classics. But it surely’s nice to see that nearly 10 years after its launch, the Overwatch workforce remains to be experimenting with types and pushing for even higher designs.
