It didn’t take long for Overwatch 2 players to begin expressing disappointment with this year’s Lunar New Year event, Year of the Rabbit.
The very first screen players saw upon logging in to the event for the first time yesterday was the subject of discussion in a recent Reddit thread, and when shown in comparison to previous iterations of the event in the original game, it’s easy to see why.
This year’s login splash screen reveals three free rewards for the event, including a weapon charm, a souvenir, and the Kkachi Legendary skin for Echo. But the rest of the skins advertised on the screen, like most new skins in OW2, must be paid for.
“They have certainly failed by not at least bringing back the weekly challenge skins,” said one of the top comments in the thread. “They had a system already in place to give out free skins, and they missed the lay up.”
The move to free-to-play has consistently seen old skins added to the store for new players to purchase. This year’s event contains just one new Lunar-themed skin, the Hu Tou Mao skin for Mei, on sale on the store for 1,000 OW Coins.
“I used to get so excited for events cause of the skins,” one commenter said. “I’d eagerly check the Twitter for early teasers, and excitedly boot up the game to go look at the usually 5-10 good skins and the neat new voice lines and emotes and stuff. But now, it’s like, one skin that costs $15. And that’s basically it. They’re harming their community playerbase with this shit.”
The amount of disdain and disappointment in the thread was palpable, with players expressing their feelings without any real filter.
“Blizzard is getting worse by the fucking month, how is this even possible?” said one comment, with another calling the event “literally dog shit, zero effort.”
The other main draw of the yearly Lunar New Year event is limited time Lunar Brawl modes, which players seem to be enjoying, so it’s not a complete loss. But for old players, the switch to free-to-play still seems to be pretty jarring even after several months.
