Debates about who gets the most cosmetics in Overwatch are as old as the game itself, but these arguments have only gotten worse as the hero shooter has implemented collaborations with other brands. It feels like a crossover can’t come and go without Kiriko, Mercy, or Juno getting some love while some heroes like Baptiste, Lúcio, and many, many others go without. Why? Well, many Overwatch fans hypothesize that it’s because Kiriko and Mercy mains are always willing to pony up cash, but according to Blizzard, it’s a bit more complicated than that.
During a group interview with the art team on Blizzard’s Irvine campus, art director Dion Rogers explained that some of the characters who have historically been spoiled in Overwatch’s many collaborations are just easier to conceptualize in different outfits and accessories than others, but as the team has gotten more experienced at adapting outside looks for its heroes, they hope to better serve some of the neglected characters, like Lúcio.
“Our team, we draw a bunch of stuff and it just works better with some heroes than others,” Rogers said. “It’s just the nature of the hero itself. I know Lúcio mains are hungry. We’ve got some stuff coming for Lúcio as you just saw with Hello Kitty. There’s even more coming for him. So as we become better at the work and more efficient, we’re nearing 50 heroes, also, so it’s really hard to get to certain guys. It is the nature of there are some characters that are easier to do things for than others.
“There’s some guys, you do it, and you see it, and you’re like, ‘that looks cursed. That’s not gonna work.’ Some of them actually slip out and make it out into the game. So that’s been a lot of the conversations we have sometimes. It’s more of, ‘does a fantasy truly work for a character or not, or are we making some sort of cursed thing?’ But now, 2026, you’re going to see the kind of fruits of our labor over the past two years of building a better pipeline, building more efficiency. We’ll be able to hit more heroes than before with broader concepting and stuff for the guys that feel a little underserved. We’ll get to them.”
Character artist Melissa Kelly added that, as a Zarya fan, she sympathizes with the plight of those who play underserved heroes. That said, while Lúcio is getting some love in the Sanrio crossover, Kiriko, Juno, and Mercy are also in the line-up. So some old habits die hard.
