Thought I’d quote the long version of my thoughts and just give y’all the short version here lol.
I personally don’t believe OW2 will be coming out until late 2023-2024 (I could be wrong!) and considering players have been waiting since 2019 for new content about the new game (Sojourn is not new content), OW should bring back all their Challenge and OWL cosmetics in between and during their Anniversary Remixes for the players (both old and new) who didn’t get the chance to grab them before.
After giving this Anniversary Remix more thought, it’s not the worst idea in the world. I’m glad some Challenge skins have returned, but I do feel sorry for the fans who already have those items and have nothing to look forward to other than overpriced recoloured skins… And since I think OW2 won’t be out any time soon, I see Anniversary Remix 4, 5, 6, and counting in our near future.
Considering OW has already confirmed and brought back several OWL cosmetics, why not bring them all back? I’m sure they’ll rack up good money for the League (not everyone has thousands of leftover tokens sitting and waiting to be used, so of course people will have to buy including myself) and there are skins that have yet to make a comeback like Echo’s Good and Evil skin and Mei’s MM-Mei skin. Also items like Ana’s Haroeris and Widowmaker’s Ange De La Mort skins should return with them. More money for Blizz and the League, right? Isn’t that a good thing?
I’m surprised Blizzard hasn’t had these OWL skins readily available in their shop 24/7 since the money goes back to them. They have the Lucio emote readily available, they should do the same for their other OWL items… I always thought it would be a great idea to at the very least have them on rotation annually or every 6 months, having the full list return. Call me crazy, but I’m ready to fork over $100+ for all those skins lol! Of course not everyone will spend that much, but they will definitely spend cash for the items they want!
As for Challenge cosmetics like Sigma’s Maestro or Soldier 76’s Ugly Sweater, they could make a return during and in between these Anniversary Remixes as we wait for OW2. There’s no reason for Blizzard not to make all Challenge cosmetics available. There are PLENTY of new accounts (both smurfs and genuine new players) that have joined recently and would definitely take advantage of that as they are now with Nano D.VA and the other returning skins. There are still players up to this day that switch from console to PC and vice versa and want to get all the items their previous account or accounts has for their current one. And obviously there’s the genuine new players that haven’t gotten any of these Special cosmetics because they weren’t around to take advantage of that opportunity.
There’s a lot of pros to this idea, the only con I see is old OW players not really getting much unfortunately. I wish Blizz would at least compensate by giving them 3-5 loot boxes after completing the challenge skins again. Maybe 1 new legendary skin that isn’t a recolour of an already existing skin would work as well. If not, even a couple of new emotes or victory poses could pass too, but I’m also aware that all hands on deck are for OW2’s progress. So all-in-all, it would be much easier for the team to entertain their fans by having all OWL cosmetics readily available and all Challenge cosmetics having a comeback during and in between these Anniversary Remixes since they won’t have to put their time into making new models and such.
And sad to say, I think Blizz has already pushed away majority of their OG OW players with all their shenanigans and will have to rely on their new wave of fans until they win back their old ones…IF they can win them back.
Seeing they have been bringing back beloved skins in the past recent years such as All Stars Mercy (OWL), Bastet Ana (Challenge), Noire Widowmaker (for Nintendo Switch) and Demon Hunter Sombra (Blizzcon/Challenge), I do see a chance of all their cosmetics (no matter how exclusive) making a return someday despite the chances still being kind of low. If not now then maybe in OW2?… At the end of the day, it’s out of our hands and we would have to see if OW answers our prayers lol.
… Also, this turned out to be longer than I thought. I’m so sorry for another long post lol.