Overwatch Winter Wonderland 2017 Start Time, Legendary Skins, and New Game Mode Revealed

To celebrate Christmas, Overwatch Winter Wonderland returns. Expect Christmas-themed Overwatch character skins, emotes, sprays, intros, and voice lines among others. The Overwatch Winter Wonderland event release date is December 12.

Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan has stated that new legendary skins will make it to the game for heroes such as Hanzo, Junkrat, and Road Hog.

Certain Overwatch maps will be redone to suit the season. In the past Hanamura and King’s Row received the Winter Wonderland treatment and this continues. However, the Black Forest map will also be decked up for the holiday season as well.

In addition to this Mei’s Yeti Hunt. This new mode sees five Meis square off a single Winston in the Nepal village map. And yes, Kaplan understands how ridiculous that sounds.

"I know a lot of you are thinking it sounds kind of ridiculous and kind of silly, and I'm here to tell you it absolutely is," Kaplan said. "But the point of some of these seasonal brawls are just to be fun and light and refreshing for a period of time."

Previously, Overwatch received a new hero in Moira, which was a cause for concern for the game’s tech team. Read about their concerns every time a new hero is launched in Overwatch in our interview with Tim Ford, Lead Engineer for Gameplay Systems on Overwatch at Blizzard.