Blizzard says Overwatch's sexier heroes are more down to "technical hurdles" than a desire to make everyone hot, but fans would rather devs focus on finally fixing "same face syndrome"

Screenshot of Overwatch's Anran hero, a woman dressed in orange holding a flaming fan, smirking into the camera.

(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Blizzard Entertainment developers have explained that Overwatch's roster isn't getting hotter for the reasons you might think, but that hasn't stopped fans from complaining that some of the characters' face models are way too alike.

It's no secret that Overwatch's characters have become more conventionally attractive through the years. Whether it was characters like Roadhog and Zarya or Junkrat and Mei, the hero shooter felt fresh for representing multiple body types and silhouettes at launch, alongside stuff like a talking gorilla or robot monk.

Senior producer Kenny Hudson now says the conventionally attractive body types actually come from technical needs rather than a desire to make endless eye candy, though. "Something that we kind of look into when we're doing our heroes is how can we make them unique, but still give them a good platform, proportionally, height, scale proportion to not only build cosmetics for them and future-proof things, but to stop the technical hurdles of other things," Hudson tells Gamespot.

The kirikofication 😭 from r/Overwatch

how do you have a team of artists and still end up with same face syndrome as bad as this . BROTHER. pic.twitter.com/8AK1m9I7D4February 4, 2026

Still, that doesn't address why heroes' faces have become more homogenized as well. Over on social media, several players have been pointing out the similarities between upcoming DPS Anran and evergreen supports Kiriko and Juno, even going so far as dubbing the problem "same face syndrome."

One post even highlights that Anran's face model wasn't so distractingly familiar when the fire-bending hero was teased last year - she had a stronger jaw and sharper eyes to set her apart from her younger peers, though she's now victim of the "Kirikofication" effect.

Last year, Blizzard said the team still loved oddball Overwatch characters. We got our first glimpse of that yesterday with the Jetpack Cat hero.

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