EXCLUSIVE: Overwatch 2 Devs Talk Esports Skins, LE SSERAFIM Collab
- Learn exclusive details about the second Overwatch 2 x LE SSERAFIM collab
- Blizzard isn't ruling out esports or ranked collab tie-ins
- Overwatch 2 Art Director shares how skins are designed for the game
Overwatch 2 is going through a period of extreme change, with new features, modes, and more coming at a rapid pace to start 2025. This also includes a second collaboration with the K-pop group LE SSERAFIM, bringing a stacked lineup of cosmetics to the game.
Ahead of the new LE SSERAFIM collab, Esports Illustrated was able to sit down with Overwatch 2 art director Dion Rogers and Blizzard associate director of product management Aimee Dennett to discuss just how collabs happen for the game and the potential for future moves into new areas.
What is Different For Overwatch 2 LE SSERAFIM Collab Round 2?
For the second time, Overwatch 2 is working directly with the K-pop group LE SSERAFIM to bring a host of collab content to the game on March 18.
This includes new skins for Mercy, Juno, D.Va, Ashe, and Illari, along with recolored versions of the original LE SSERAFIM collab skins for Kiriko, D.Va, Sombra, Tracer, and Brigitte. However, unlike last time, the skins themselves are the main focus rather than a musical tie-in or event mode.
This collab will coincide with LE SSERAFIM’s new album “HOT” being released on March 14, but there won’t be a tie-in like the Perfect Night song in November 2023 for the original. The Concert Clash game mode also won’t be making a return, as the OW team is more focused on other important gameplay updates, with the recent release of Perks and the upcoming Stadium game mode.
“We don’t really have a single template we apply to each [collab.] It’s more what would be fun and interesting for this IP and the players,” Dennett said. “We wanted to make sure that [Concert Clash] was in a good spot if we were going to bring it back, but we felt that there’s so much other important stuff happening to the core game that we really didn’t want to take resources away from that.”
Could Overwatch 2 Get Collabs and Skins For Esports or Ranked?
Even though collabs and other cosmetic drops are designed to be enjoyed by all Overwatch players, there is a general lean toward casual appeal. And that makes sense because a majority of players in the game likely won’t touch competitive, or at least won’t spend all of their time grinding through the ranks.
Ranked players do get their own special cosmetics in the form of unique weapon skins to unlock or things like player titles to show off. However, there is always room for more content, and bringing competitive collabs or more tie-ins to the esports scene could get casual players to show more interest.
Blizzard is aware of this gap and isn’t against trying something should it make sense. But you likely won’t see it happen any time soon, as the team is more focused on making sure the players who play ranked or compete in Overwatch esports have the best experience from a gameplay perspective.
Dennett mentioned that gameplay integrity is the main thing the development team takes into account when anything is brought up, but that is especially true for something that would go into competitive elements of Overwatch. And that comes into conflict with things like IP collabs, which allow the team to feel “unbound” when creating content and pushing the game in ways they don’t typically get to.
“We don’t really want to be constrained by anything that would even slightly mess up the integrity of something like ranked,” Dennett said. “That said, we’ll never rule something out if there’s a really cool out-of-the-box idea that would still maintain that integrity and isn’t too creatively restrictive. I could see us doing something like that, but for the most part, we try to keep [collabs] outside of the core competitive game.”
Rogers expanded on this from his position as art director, noting that there are dozens of nuanced elements the team has to take into account for even the smallest additions to the game—with the use of the color red being one of them.
According to Rogers, the team specifically limits the areas where they use a saturated color of red in cosmetics or environments because the default outline for enemies in the game is red, and “players tend to gravitate toward it.” That is especially true at higher ranks, when players are reacting faster and looking for anything to pinpoint an enemy.
Related Article: Overwatch 2 2025 Competitive Year Details - All Changes and Loot Box Updates
For that reason, specific shades of red aren’t used often in esports skins or competitive parts of the game. But with an IP collab, the team allows themselves to “bend” their usual rules a bit more, such as using a very saturated red with Reinhardt’s Optimus Prime skin.
What Goes Into Making an Overwatch Collab Skin Unique?
Those key factors go far beyond esports impact, too, as every single skin or cosmetic goes through rounds of scrutiny to make sure it stays within a boundary set by the design team. Everything from the dimensions and key elements of a hero down to the sound effects is handled differently, with the end goal of making sure the core gameplay of Overwatch remains recognizable.
“We won’t change our animations, they must remain. The movements you see of a hero and how they attack and things [like that,” Rogers said. “Reinhardt’s a big example, he has these great, giant shoulders. We have to find a way to maintain that part of his silhouette as a key look of the hero.”
Some rules have gotten looser over time, such as the team experimenting more with visual effects on Legendary, Mythic, and IP collab skins. But no matter what, the changes are kept within a “boundary that keeps the same level of power.”
“Brigitte in our original [LE SSERAFIM] skins, she still has kind of the shoulderplate. It’s a big part of her look,” Rogers said. “We have categories on heroes that we need to maintain while there are other areas we can play with a bit more. It can be more transformative on the hero, especially for collab skins. What can we do that is really a little bit unexpected when people look at a hero they’re generally familiar with? But always the challenge is to keep the identity of the hero while being as transformative as possible.”
The new LE SSERAFIM skins are a great example of how far the OW team has come with fitting the game’s heroes into new designs. These new skins show various characters in a more casual setting with streetwear designed in collaboration with the musicians and the Blizzard Korea design team.
Rogers specifically pointed out Illari’s design in the new collab, saying that the team went even further than normal with the freedom of this project. They gave her the K-pop style by almost “breaking” the character in terms of their usual visual restrictions.
So, while collabs like this with LE SSERAFIM can break the mold and get creative, things like skins for the Overwatch Champions Series might be more streamlined to benefit the competitive nature of the game.
As for future events and collabs expanding into competitive spaces, there is always a chance something could happen if the OW team finds the right ideas. But it all comes down to timing and if the developers feel something fits with the content.
“Obviously [the team is] very excited about K-pop, so this is something of a deep dive. And, if we have time [working on collabs], we will try to do a little event to go along with it,” Rogers said. “We work on a lot of things behind the scenes. If we don’t find it fun, it may not materialize. The team decides. We look at it and say ‘Is that worth adding to this or not?’”
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