There’s no thematic coherence to seasons anymore, and that’s why I call these new skins fortnite pacobox fodder. It’s just a bunch of survey skins being released at will after being thoroughly market-tested. The Overwatch anniversary event in OW1 was special because it was a rare treat to get skins that didn’t fit into any particular event. Now, that happens every week, and those unique skins have lost their luster.

Yes, the skins are well-made, but they aren’t doing anything interesting. They have no functional purpose in the lore or connection to the characters identities. Why did Genji receive a Kendo skin in OW1 for the Summer Games? Because kendo is a Japanese sport, and you can actually see him practicing with wooden swords in one of his sprays.

Of course, not all skins in OW1 had that level of thought, but many still carried some cultural or personal connection.

Take Juno, for example. You’ve got: Uravity, Fearless, Chun-Li, Teo-minh, Ember, Forget-me-not, and Music Festival. All skins that have little to nothing to do with Juno as a character within the Overwatch universe. Lastly, there’s Celestial, but that’s just a continuation of an Orisa skin line from a while back; so no credit for originality there, maybe half-points at most.

Across new heroes and shop skins, these random themes are everywhere because everything comes from surveys. Personally, this type of skin design and development doesn’t interest me. They’ve really been pushing survey slop hard since the release of Stadium.