After Finally Redeeming Itself in 2025, Overwatch 2 Just Made a Massive Mistake

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It took a while for Overwatch 2 to win players over and prove its worth, but consistent updates and hard work from Aaron Keller and Team 4 finally turned things around in 2025. The new Progression 2.0 system and the return of earnable loot boxes give players extra incentives to play beyond just the battle passes, and the core gameplay is better thanks to the perk system. The recently added lore codex is a great resource for fans who enjoy the game’s story, and the Stadium mode really revitalized Overwatch 2, making it feel fresh for the first time in years. Despite this success, it’s surprising that Overwatch 2 ended 2025 (and started 2026) with a bit of controversy.

The current issue revolves around an Overwatch 2 event happening only in China. It’s focused on the Talon faction, and players outside of China feel excluded. While China has had similar exclusive events before – largely because Overwatch was unavailable there for a while and this version is catching up – it’s still frustrating for others. This event has some really appealing cosmetic rewards, and those can’t be earned anywhere else. Even though Overwatch 2‘s Winter Wonderland event had decent rewards, it’s ending, and earning things like skin variations or loot boxes just doesn’t compare to getting top-tier cosmetics for free.

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase handles support for the Chinese version of Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2’s “Black Claw Archive” Showers Chinese Players in Quality Loot

This special, temporary event for Chinese players doesn’t include new game types or story details, which some players in other regions might expect. However, it does feature some of the most unique and highly desired cosmetic items for Overwatch 2, such as:

  • Demon Hunter Sombra
  • Luchador Reaper
  • Chained King Reaper
  • Thunder Doomfist
  • Lilith Moira
  • Ninja Sombra

Several Overwatch 2 skins are particularly hard to find for different reasons. Skins like Chained King Reaper, Luchador Reaper, and Thunder Doomfist used to be available through the Overwatch League, but players outside of China haven’t been able to get them for over a year, making them rare. Lilith Moira and Ninja Sombra were exclusive rewards from the pricey battle passes during the Diablo 4 collaboration and Season 19, respectively. Perhaps the most surprising is the original Demon Hunter Sombra, which initially debuted as a Blizzcon exclusive and was briefly available during a Halloween event in 2019. Although a recolored version came out later, the original skin hasn’t been easily obtainable for over seven years, making it incredibly rare.

This event features around 36 unique character skins, as explained by Reddit user Legitimate_Pop5682 for players outside of China. Surprisingly, half of these rare skins are available for free! Players can earn a free skin for each character from the “Black Claw” group (including Talon) by completing specific challenges for each one. Plus, they receive another free skin simply for logging in each day. Chinese players are getting access to highly sought-after skins, and they’re able to obtain them for free through this reportedly simple event.

On top of everything else, completing 50 matches within 20 days will reward players with 20 standard loot boxes, 8 epic items, and 3 legendary items – a similar amount of loot as was available with the Krampus Junkrat offer during the 2025 Winter Wonderland event.

Overwatch 2’s Region-Exclusive Events Are a Slippery Slope

Image via Blizzard

So, Overwatch 2 has been doing these events that are only available in certain regions, and so far it’s mostly been China. Honestly, it got me thinking – with heroes from all over the globe, could we see a UK event for Tracer, a Japan event for Kiriko, or maybe something focused on D.Va in Korea? I really hope not, because it would be frustrating to miss out on stuff just because of where you live. But it could happen. It’s also possible Blizzard might decide to just spread these events around to other countries instead of getting rid of them altogether, especially if they start getting complaints. It’s a tricky situation, and I’m curious to see how they handle it.

Offering Chinese players bonus loot boxes to help them catch up makes sense, but giving them exclusive cosmetic items that other players can no longer get feels unfair. Especially since these items are being given away for free in China. Many players would simply like the opportunity to buy things like the Thunder Doomfist skin again, so it’s frustrating to see it offered for free to one group of players when others have already participated in similar events. Hopefully, Blizzard will listen to the feedback and bring a similar event to other regions soon. While it might not be as generous as the Chinese version, it would help players feel like everyone is being treated equally, as many currently feel there’s too much favoritism.

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2026-01-02 04:05