Blizzard Entertainment has apparently made a quiet change to a pair of skins for one of its Overwatch characters. In the game, Zarya has an Arctic skin and a Siberian Front skin, both of which featured a “Z” symbol on the upper left side. The letter was only meant as a reference to the character’s name, but Zarya is Russian, and a similar “Z” symbol has been used to show support for the country’s war in Ukraine. Blizzard has not offered any official word on the change, but it’s easy to assume why it might have been made.ย
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A side-by-side comparison of the skin changes was shared on Twitter by @Proto_VI, and can be found in the Tweet embedded below.
The actual change to the skin itself is a fairly small one, and many Overwatch fans have pointed out that they didn’t know the symbol was there in the first place. Given the controversial nature of the “Z” symbol right now, and Zarya’s heritage, it makes sense that the company would want to distance itself from the possibility of this getting misconstrued by any of the game’s fans around the world. Overwatch has a big following in a lot of different countries, and it’s easy to see how this might have been interpreted as a sign of support.
@Proto_VI also shared the image above to the Overwatch subreddit, where one poster pointed out that this is not the first time Blizzard has made a change to one of Zarya’s skins. An Alien Zarya skin was removed from the game last year, which had been designed by professional Overwatch player Jay “Sinatraa” Won. Won was accused of sexual abuse by an ex-girlfriend, and Blizzard Entertainment removed the skin, offering a refund to players that purchased it in the game.
Overwatchis currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, XboxSeries X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. You can check out our previouscoverage of the game right here.
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