Blizzard admits its ‘cool meter’ was off with Overwatch’s most hated holiday look

Facing backlash over a disappointing exclusive skin released as part of Overwatch’s holiday event, director Jeff Kaplan took to Battle.net to admit to fans that Blizzard Entertainment’s “‘cool meter’ was off” when it came to designing Mei’s deeply unpopular seasonal look.

“We just sort of make a gut call based off of what we think is cool,” Kaplan wrote in a post responding to fan complaints about Mei’s new skin, which hit Overwatch this week as part of the Winter Wonderland update. “Coolness is very subjective, and based off of the community reaction it seems like our gauge was off on this one.”

The community reaction, as we reported just after Winter Wonderland’s release, was resoundingly negative. Mei’s holiday outfit — her first seasonal event look — was nothing more than a festive recolor, fans said. Despite that, Blizzard classified it as “legendary,” the most expensive tier of skin designs.

“Our reasoning for [the skin] being Legendary was that we completely redid the visual effects for Cryo-Freeze (we turned the ice block into a snowman),” Kaplan explained. “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.”

A representative for Blizzard told Polygon a similar thing when we asked about the legendary status for Mei’s controversial skin. That didn’t please fans who hoped that Mei would finally get a more exciting look for the holidays, as she had been passed over during the Summer Games and Halloween events before.

Kaplan’s post ended with a reason for these Mei players to take heart.

“For people concerned that Mei is not going to get another Legendary for a long time, you need not worry,” he said. “We have something pretty awesome for her early next year.”

We’ll have to wait to see what that turns out to be, but for now, Blizzard is owning up to missing the mark with Mei this time around. At least the monthlong holiday event brings fun new outfits for other Overwatch heroes in the meantime; check those out below.

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• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment
• Overwatch Winter Wonderland update Blizzard Entertainment