In a pretty bizarre turn of events, Blizzard has officially responded to discontent with Mei’s holiday skin in Overwatch.
Many characters got Holiday skins, ranging in value from rare skins like Sombra’s peppermint-colored outfit to legendary skins like Torbjorn’s Santa, Zenyatta’s Nutcracker, and Tracer’s Elf. Most legendary skins are 1000 credits, but special event skins, it is important to note, are 3000c.
Mei got her very own holiday skin, as essentially a Mrs. Claus, as well as an Arcade Mode all to herself (throwing snowballs). This Mrs. Claus skin is pretty simple, though it has nice touches, like Mei’s Cryo-Freeze turning into a snowman with a Santa hat. This is not enough for the community, who is upset that this may be the last legendary Mei skin for a while, and its one that costs 3000c for something a little plain for their tastes.
As Blizzard forums user “Daddy” declares, with some vitriol, “It’s clear that the majority of people do not like that skin, and feel that it is inferior to all of the other legendary skins in the game. Someone from Blizzard needs to respond to the criticism of the Mei skin, and clarify what exactly defines a legendary skin. …If Mei was the last hero to get a skin since launch, then I shudder to think how long it’ll be until we get our next one… and it’s (as decided by the community) quite a disappointing one.”
Overwatch’s game director, Jeff Kaplan, at this point felt the need to step in and explain: “Hi there. Sorry you are disappointed with Mei’s winter skin. We don’t have a specific rule for what makes something Legendary or Epic. We just sort of make a gut call based off of what we think is cool. Coolness is very subjective, and based off of the community reaction it seems like our gauge was off on this one.
“Our reasoning for it being Legendary was that we completely redid the visual effects for Cryo-Freeze (we turned the ice block into a snowman). We thought that was pretty special and we had done it specifically based on community suggestions from months ago when people were speculating that we might have a winter event. Apparently, lots of people don’t agree with us and that’s ok. It’s all good feedback and we’re learning something for future events.
“For people concerned that Mei is not going to get another Legendary for a long time, you need not worry. We have something pretty awesome for her early next year. Apologies that our ‘cool meter’ was off from yours on this one. We’ll try to align better on future content.”
In other words, Blizzard is sticking to its guns on the quality of this skin while promising future action. It may not be the exact response the skin’s detractors wanted, but no one can deny they’re being reasonable and honest about it. In any case, you can get your own Mei snowman in Overwatch now.