Overwatch’s newest hero was the star of Blizzard’s live stream today, where developers showed off a legendary skin for the battle hamster.
Hammond, officially known as Wrecking Ball, is getting a Horizon Lunar Colony skin and a Junkertown skin, Overwatch artists Arnold Tsang and Ben Zhang revealed during the stream. The artists said they wanted to create skins that are inspired by Hammond’s lore.
Related: Yep, a hamster called Wrecking Ball is Overwatch’s new hero—and on the PTR now
Hammond joined Overwatch’s test server on June 28 after a week of teasers from Blizzard. Many Overwatch fans expected Hammond, but not that he was a hamster. It’s always been assumed that Hammond was a primate, like Winston—after all, they both lived together on Horizon Lunar Colony. But he’s not a small monkey, he’s a large hamster. Attached to Winston’s escape pod, Hammond made it off the moon, crash landing in the Australian outback. He made a name for himself as a prize-winning fighter in Junkertown’s Scrap Yard, where he managed to keep his identity a mystery. (Blizzard said no one knew he was a hamster.)
Both Tsang and Zhang worked through the process of creating skins for Overwatch heroes while answering questions about the hero design process. Tsang talked about how Blizzard landed on Hammond—the team was trying to figure out how to fit a “cute” character into the game.
Blizzard hasn’t said exactly when Hammond will be uploaded to Overwatch’s live server. We’re likely in for one more week of testing before he’s widely available.
