BlizzardOverwatch players are already fearing that the upcoming support character, Aqua, might become like Kiriko and earn a disproportionate amount of cosmetics.
The Overwatch community is passionate about skins and other cosmetics, but not all characters are created equal in this department. While some popular characters are frequent recipients of new Epic and Legendary skins, some of the more niche heroes can go months without seeing a new cosmetic.
This preferential treatment hasn’t gone unnoticed by the community, with many players noticing Kiriko receiving an outrageous number of new skins compared to other characters in the game.
With the design of the upcoming support hero, Aqua, revealed during Overwatch’s Spotlight event, players are now speculating that Aqua may go the way of Kiriko and become another character to receive too many new skins.
A lack of equal distribution
Players have noticed Aqua’s conventionally attractive design, and are already predicting him to earn a massive amount of new skins.
“They want a young man/pretty-boi archetype that’s easy to dress up and sell skins for both the guys who self-insert and [the] gals that admire,” speculated one user. “In that sense, he will be Kiriko’s ‘counterpart’ as the younger more marketable character.”
Some players aren’t even upset at this prospect, as Aqua is viewed as a breath of fresh air and a departure from more recent Overwatch characters.
“Outside of Lucio, we have a distinct lack of young male heroes so Aqua is a huge breath of fresh air,” wrote one player. “All the female characters (barring Ana, Moira, and maybe Junker Queen) are allowed to look young but most of the male characters are grizzled and old-looking.”
However, other players feel as if this speculation is incorrect, and no characters will beat characters like Kiriko and Mercy who have a wider appeal.
“Female characters will naturally sell more skins,” wrote one user. “I highly doubt anyone other than Juno will match [Kiriko].”
Time will tell whether or not Aqua lands positively with the community at large, especially as his in-game model has not been revealed yet. Still, we have the new character Freja to release before Aqua, who will release during Season 16. Aqua himself will be available to play starting Season 18, with a play test likely coming before that.
