January 2018 has been a big month for Overwatch, Activision Blizzard’s popular 2016 hero shooter. The first of the month kicked off season 8 of ranked play. Last week saw the premiere of the first season of the Overwatch League. This week Overwatch has been given a large update, called the Cosmetics Update, that adds over 100 new items as well as the new map, Blizzard World.
The new map is a bit like if Blizzard made Disney Land. It’s a celebration of all their gaming properties and franchises, including zones for StarCraft, the tavern from Hearthstone, and Castle Stormwind from WarCraft right in the middle.
New adventures are waiting for you!
Play BLIZZARD WORLD now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. pic.twitter.com/XLXVLRcaRr
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 23, 2018
Blizzard World is a Hybrid map that switches from Assault to Escort, like in Hollywood and Numbani. Because it’s Blizzard, there’s plenty of fun jokes and easter eggs to be found around the map that references their games dating back to the 90s.
Over 100 new cosmetic items have also been added, including skins, icons, emotes, sprays, and highlight intros, for all 26 heroes.
Many of the new skins cross-pollinate between Blizzard games, as if to further celebrate Blizzard World. Many of these skins are heroes in Heroes of the Storm – who in turn are drawn from all of Blizzard’s games. Zarya gets a Sonya skin (Diablo 2’s Barbarian), Widowmaker a Nova skin (StarCraft) and Roadhog can don the creepy Butcher, the first boss from 1996’s Diablo.
Here is a full list of all the new skins and their names:
Legendary Skins
- Blackhand Doomfist
- Black Cat D.Va
- Kabuki Hanzo
- Asp Pharah
- Capoeira Lúcio
- Ecopoint: Antarctica Mei
- Immortal Orisa
- Crusader Reinhardt
- Butcher Roadhog
- Magni Torbjörn
- Nova Widowmaker
- Barbarian Zarya
Epic Skins
- Caution Junkrat
- Royal McCree
- Hellfire Reaper
- Peacock Symmetra
- Carbon Fiber Zenyatta
To acquire these skins you’ll need to find them in loot boxes, either earned or purchased. The Cosmetic Update is available now for free on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
