Overwatch Brings the Holiday Cheer with Winter Wonderland Update, Live Now
Shane Black 
Santa has come early for Overwatch players today with the start of the game’s Winter Wonderland event. The event will run from Dec. 10 to Jan. 2 and includes new skins and cosmetics, a new game mode, and weekly challenges.
The new mode is called “Snowball Deathmatch”, an eight-player free-for-all deathmatch where all players play as Mei using a snowball gun. The catch—pun intended—is that Mei has a new ability called “Catch,” which allows players to catch an enemies’ snowball and add it to their own ammo. The first one to 15 eliminations is the winner.
Along with the new mode, players will be able to earn new skins; four Legendary skins that can be earned through loot boxes and three Epic skins that can be earned through weekly challenges. The Epic Skins are Ugly Sweater Soldier 76 (Week One), Holly Moira (Week Two), and Snow Angel Mercy (Week Three). As for the Legendaries, those include Jotunn Doomfist, Mountain Man McCree, and Rat King Reaper. Plus, there are new player icons and sprays to earn.
All this content comes with a decent patch to the game as well, adding a new “While You Wait” feature, which allows players to enjoy a variety of game modes while they wait for a match. These modes include Practice Range, Skirmish, and Deathmatch. In addition to this, there are some quality-of-life and balancing changes, as detailed in the patch notes.
While Blizzard has already announced and are gearing up for Overwatch 2, they are still providing support to the first game, which has maintained a strong playerbase since it launched in 2016. Even when the sequel launches, it will exist within the same ecosystem as the first, allowing players of either game to play together. With the massive popularity of the game, it’s no wonder that Blizzard is keeping the game alive along with the sequel.
Overwatch, and its Winter Wonderland event, is available now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
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