Back in 2023, Overwatch harnessed the dread energy of Okay-Pop, releasing a collaboration with Le Sserafim that included a debut tune, 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 workforce’s love for Okay-pop collaborations, as we’ll be getting a complete new Le Sserafim occasion subsequent week.
“When it involves returning collaborations, we by no means say by no means,” Aimee Dennett, affiliate director of product administration, tells me. “We do not wish to carry one thing again only for the sake of bringing one thing again, however there is not any 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 can be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Just like the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 workforce select the very best heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, and so they can decide characters that they like taking part in or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You know, they’re impressed by a whole lot of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually beloved Juno once they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we talk about 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, due to a cameo within the Perfect Night Overwatch 2 cinematic. Towards 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 in fact, Ash bought 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 can be Ash, Juno, Mercy, Illari, and D.Va (who’s making a re-appearance).
Just like the primary collaboration, Le Sserafim helped the Overwatch 2 workforce select the very best heroes for this one. “They play Overwatch, and so they can decide characters that they like taking part in or they really feel fits them personally,” Dion Rogers, Overwatch artwork director, says. “You know, they’re impressed by a whole lot of the heroes within the sport, too. They actually beloved Juno once they noticed her launch to the sport. So that is one thing that we talk about 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, due to a cameo within the Perfect Night Overwatch 2 cinematic. Towards 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 in fact, 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
While 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. Last 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 together with his silent buddy. But giving Roadhog an informal Okay-pop pores and skin is not as simple as I’d wish 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 a whole lot of armor and weaponry, and so we have to preserve their silhouette and the learn for gameplay causes. So, there are numerous characters which are tougher than others to carry all the way down to a extra informal outfit. Reinhardt, for instance, is a really tough character. What’s a standard day for Reinhardt?
“Roadhog can also be fairly exhausting. Sometimes, the character’s lack of armor additionally makes it tough. Having some form of start line simply makes it rather a lot simpler to take care of their silhouettes and their gameplay reads whereas, , placing on a brand new outfit.”
Changing the silhouette of a personality can be extremely damaging in Overwatch 2. Most of the time, you solely catch fleeting glimpses of heroes mid-game, and the fights are so quick that gamers want to have the ability to determine heroes and their skills right away. Voice strains might help with this—I now have a right away reflex to fade as Moira if I hear “Hammer Down”—however the visible aspect continues to be extremely vital.
“So Mercy, for instance, her wings are a key a part of her silhouette,” Rogers explains. “So generally, 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 could possibly be fairly jarring at first as this can be a fast indicator that almost all gamers subconsciously search for throughout matches. But you’d additionally must maintain different visible options just like the animation for her rez capacity in order that the enemy workforce is aware of what is going on on and that they should attempt to interrupt it.
Luckily, as this was Overwatch 2’s second collaboration with Le Sserafim, none of those points actually got here up. “This 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 vogue and what’s cool to make, as an alternative of overcoming the technical points.”
Blizzard Korea is the workforce accountable for all of those Le Sserafim skins, and so they appear ideally suited to the job. “These guys are so in contact with vogue influences and the scene there, they develop into the right match to do one thing like this,” Rogers says. “Obviously, they integrated a bunch of hip hop and avenue put on this time. They’re in a position to see the developments there and apply them to the skins.”
The first set of Le Sserafim skins had been actually cool, however these new ones clearly have extra real-world influences. They are 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 after I first noticed it.
The 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 hooked up 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 developments, and the RGB weapon glow is impressed by the neon aesthetic in Le Sserafim’s Crazy music video.
Despite the technical points defined above, Overwatch 2 has been pushing the boat out relating to skins for a while now. It all actually began with the brand new mythic skins that had been launched in Overwatch 2’s battle cross, 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 a bit of bit extra transformative with skins,” Rogers says. Before, 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 form of break free from {that a} bit greater than we often do. There’s this concept to be as transformative as doable whereas protecting the identification of the hero. So that is 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 only a few standout examples among the many previous classics. But it is nice to see that just about 10 years after its launch, the Overwatch workforce continues to be experimenting with types and pushing for even higher designs.
