Update: A post on the official Overwatch forums states that the issue with Wrecking Ball's cosmetics has been identified and resolved. Players who received loot boxes after the Wrecking Ball patch that were erroneously providing duplicate items will receive fresh boxes at a 1:1 ratio within the week - that is to say, if you bought 50 loot boxes that didn't correctly give you Wrecking Ball loot, you will receive 50 additional boxes. Our original story continues below.
It appears that Wrecking Ball's cosmetics are not properly appearing in Overwatch loot boxes according to reports in a pair of Reddit threads (first thread, second thread) on the /r/Overwatch subreddit.
Wrecking Ball is the newest hero to grace Overwatch. He first popped up in late June and recently had his release date set for today; the adorable little battle hamster is now live in the game. Unfortunately, it seems that his cosmetics didn't quite launch quite the way they were supposed to - a number of players are reporting not receiving them via the game's loot boxes (and I personally experienced this issue myself).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kA-g_SX9vA
On the upside, Blizzard did a really excellent job with the Wrecking Ball trailer.
To best explain things, one must understand how loot boxes in Overwatch work. Items are separated into four rarities (White/Common, Blue/Rare, Purple/Epic, and Orange/Legendary). Originally, you had a random chance of getting duplicates or a new item when you opened a loot box. However, the system changed for the better over a year ago. Now players will no longer get duplicates of a rarity class until they have unlocked absolutely all of the items of that color.As a result of this newer loot box system, players who have all of the game's Common & Rare items should have been receiving Wrecking Ball's new stuff when they opened loot boxes earned after the patch. (The content of loot boxes is generated when they are dropped, meaning that it's not really possible to hoard them for future content.) Unfortunately, it seems that his items just aren't dropping for players as they should be.
A potential source of the issue might be the Twitch Prime Wrecking Ball loot boxes currently on offer. These special loot boxes give players Overwatch cosmetics for the new hero; it's possible that the loot tables got mixed up somewhere and resulted in Hammond's items not properly dropping. This theory is supported by the fact that a handful of players (including myself, again) did receive the new "Simple Geometry" voice line for Hanzo which debuted in this patch.
We've reached out to Blizzard for comment on this matter. In the meantime, you might want to check out today's patch notes to see the new developments in the game including big changes to Sombra, some balance adjustments, and a boatload of bug fixes.
Have you received any Wrecking Ball cosmetics from loot boxes in Overwatch? What do you think of the new hero overall? Let us know in the comments below!
