Winter Wonderland has returned to Overwatch 2 but the Overwatch community is very unsatisfied this time around.
Winter Wonderland arrived on Tuesday, Dec. 13, bringing one new skin (Ice Queen Brigitte) and some charms and sprays. Players immediately noticed the new cosmetics were very lackluster, especially when compared to previous Winter Wonderland events.
One Reddit user even did a side-by-side comparison of the new cosmetics in 2021 versus 2022’s Winter Wonderland. Last year’s winter holiday celebration had many more Overwatch skins, including Orisa as a Reindeer and Mei dressed up in a penguin suit.
A lot of Overwatch 2 players noted the point of an event is to keep people invested in playing the game, often providing incentives for grinding or completing challenges. But with only one legendary skin, players didn’t have a lot of reasons to continue the grind over the holidays. All of the other event activities can be done within a day, according to some avid players.
What made the difference in event cosmetics even more jarring is the fact Overwatch 2 has retired the concept of loot boxes and has instead implemented a battle pass system.
A lot of the new cosmetics (and heroes) are now only available to players who are willing to pay money to instantly unlock them to avoid tedious grinding the battle pass for weeks.
The overall new structure in Overwatch 2 has players missing loot boxes, which gave a constant incentive to keep leveling up. The underwhelming amount of new cosmetics has also left Overwatch fans disappointed with Winter Wonderland.
Winter Wonderland is just the latest source of controversy in Overwatch 2, which has been continuously criticized for locking heroes behind a premium battle pass. Blizzard has even noticed players’ ongoing anger with the new system and has poked fun at them with a salty weapon charm. This only made Overwatch players angrier.
