Overwatch 2 Players Complain New Skin Is Pay-to-Lose

Overwatch 2’s newest event added a skin which some feel is a pay-to-lose cosmetic due to the amount of noise it supposedly makes. That skin went to Widowmaker and turns her into Medusa to fit the theme of Greek legends in the Battle for Olympus event, a version of Medusa complete with hissing snakes for hair. It’s those snakes which some feel are a bit too noisy for their own good, but others are inclined to think there’s nothing to worry about.

The fuss about the Medusa Widowmaker skin started when competitive FPS player Kephrii shared the clip below that showed a Widowmaker walking around while wearing the skin. You can hear hissing noises occasionally in the video when near another Widowmaker.

The new Medusa skin is so loud it actively punishes you for using it. Not only can you not hear enemy footsteps you also can't hide either. The enemy team can hear the snakes/hair on the Medusa skin & pinpoint your location from them. pic.twitter.com/S1P6CxO7Qp

— Brian St. Pierre (@Kephrii) January 4, 2023

It’s true that you can hear the snakes that make up the new skin, but others are skeptical of how much of a problem this really is. Those on the other side of the issue have pointed out that with how much there is going on in an Overwatch 2 match in the first place from heroes stomping around to ability effects and callouts, nobody’s going to be paying attention to some hissing noises anyway let alone the spot those noises are originating from. Widowmaker by design wants to be pretty far away from the enemy team anyway, so if you’re hearing those snakes right near you, somebody’s probably messed up somewhere.

It’s not uncommon for skins to be adjusted post-release in games whenever there’s a problem with them that might affect competitive integrity. We’ve seen it happen with Call of Duty skins in the past, so there’s reason to believe that this one could be adjusted, too, if Blizzard deems this “pay-to-lose” scenario enough of an issue to take action. Blizzard hasn’t said anything about this yet, however, so it’s unknown if anything will be done or not.

In related news, the same update that introduced this new game mode also rolled out the first update of 2023. That update included some balance changes for a number of different heroes, though not as many as some might’ve expected with characters like Roadhog left off of the patch notes.