'Overwatch' Christmas Event Update Rumors: Leaks point to new skins, maps and modes

Good news! Early leaks and data mining seem to point to a Christmas event coming to Overwatch soon. Though Blizzard has yet to confirm it officially, Overwatch players seem to have uncovered all sorts of data hiding in the game's inner workings, including information on unlockable items, new maps and a downright cheerful, twinkly version of the Overwatch theme music. 

Since most big Overwatch updates tend to go live on Tuesdays, Dec. 6 or Dec. 13 are safe bets for when you can expect Blizzard to officially announce it. In the meantime, read on for more specific information about what's been uncovered so far.

Keep in mind that this is all speculative at this point. Nothing's official until Blizzard announces it. OK, with that out of the way, let's dive in.

Overwatch Christmas event update: Skins, emotes, highlight intros and victory poses

According to YouTuber ohnickel, new data uncovered by Facepunch user Kjasi seems to indicate that every character will get a special spray, voice line and victory pose. However, the following characters will get one additional holiday item — either an emote, highlight intro or skin:

— Widowmaker

— Reinhardt

— Mercy

— Symmetra

— Reaper

— Sombra

— Roadhog

— D.va

— Ana

— Soldier: 76

— Lúcio

The same data seems to suggest the following characters will get two additional items — for example, both a skin and a highlight intro:

— Winston

— McCree

— Mei

— Pharah

— Zarya

— Tracer

— Zenyatta

The data suggests Torbjörn will be the only Overwatch character to get three special items. The obvious choice for Torbjörn's Christmas skin is some kind of Santa-themed outfit, perhaps like the one the Overwatch Twitter posted in 2014.

Overwatch Christmas event update: Four new map files?

The same data described in ohnickel's video seems to point to four new maps tied to the holiday event. One of these is probably related to the new holiday-themed mode — whatever the equivalent of the Junkenstein's Revenge mode from Halloween is. The other three are probably temporary redesigns of existing maps, similar to the temporary Halloween-themed design for the Hollywood map.

Overwatch Christmas event update: Music file leaked

Data miners say they uncovered the following music file, which is likely to be the main title music for the duration of the Overwatch holiday event:

If you're ready for more Overwatch, you'll want to check out Mic's latest Overwatch news, like this weird story about Overwatch players debating Bastion's gender on Reddit, information on Symmetra's rework, details on season three of competitive mode, the latest patch update notes, a look at the new Oasis map on the PTR, Terry Crews' desire to voice the rumored new hero Doomfist, Mic's guide to playing Sombra, which characters players speculate will be revealed as LGBTQ and information on the months-long alternate reality game that led up to the reveal of Sombra.