Overwatch 2players are discovering evidence that Blizzard may have forgotten about Echo following the free-to-play launch of the sequel. Echo may not be familiar to everyOverwatch 2player. The robot was the last character added to the originalOverwatchafter the team shooter’s player peak. Echo was also released in 2020, adding to whyOverwatchplayers may not have been introduced to her. Why Blizzard itself may have forgotten, or chosen to ignore Echo, is less obvious.
Echo is, obviously, still a character inOverwatch 2and she’s fully playable. All of her cosmetics and customizations are fully supported and transferred over to the new game. By no means has Echo been erased fromOverwatch 2. Rather,Overwatch 2playershave noticed that certain things that other characters have received as part of the upgrade to the new game, Echo has been left out on.
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One area where players noticedEcho seems to have been forgotten is her portrait. In upgrading toOverwatch 2, Blizzard decided to change characters' portraits from 3D icons to 2D art for each character. Echo’s portrait icon inOverwatch 2remains her 3D render portrait. The decision to change the art hasn’t been provided by Blizzard, so it’s all the more difficult to understand why Echo’s portrait wasn’t changed whileevery otherOverwatchcharacter’s was.
The second, and perhaps more significant omission, is with regard to Echo’s defaultOverwatch 2skin. More specifically, Echo doesn’t have a default “Overwatch 2” skin. She has her default “Overwatch 1” skin instead. All the original characters fromOverwatchreceived anupdated base skin forOverwatch 2. These skins feature small changes to textures or coloring, at the very least. Some default skins have been completely overhauled, with Blizzard promising more in the future. Echo received none of this.
There is any number of good reasons for Blizzard to have missed these things while shifting toOverwatch 2. Development resources are limited, after all, and Blizzard had a pressing timeline for gettingOverwatch 2PvPreleased. Why Echo ended up being the target of this is still a fair question.
It’s possible Blizzard simply went down a list based on character popularity, and due toEcho’s late release, her work was deprioritized. Perhaps she was even forgotten, or Blizzard decided it wanted developers to work on something else rather than spend time on her. That Echo is currently not very well balanced forOverwatch 2’s 5v5 gameplay certainly doesn’t help. Regardless, Blizzard should address the issues soon, if only to avoid accusations ofOverwatch 2being rushed and unfinished.
Overwatch 2is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
