Diablo 4’s Witcher Collab Could Literally Only Work for One Class, Says CDPR
Developers also reveal why Overwatch is collaborating with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and not Cyberpunk 2077
At this year's BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's in-person fan event celebrating its many gaming franchises, CD Projekt Red unveiled a Geralt-themed skin coming to Diablo 4 and revealed that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will cross over with Overwatch in 2027. While cross-game collaborations are a dime a dozen in live-service games nowadays, I was curious why CD Projekt Red and Blizzard specifically chose to make The Witcher collaboration a Barbarian skin and the Cyberpunk collaboration solely focus on Edgerunners. In an interview with Polygon, developers from both studios revealed why these decisions were made.
Why the Diablo 4 x The Witcher collab features a Barbarian skin
For this collaboration, Geralt himself is not coming to Diablo 4. Instead, a skin based on the character will be added for the Barbarian class. CD Projekt Red level design lead Miles Tost tells Polygon that this was the result of "a lot of back and forth on the creative side, which is challenging, but also part of the fun."
But why the Barbarian specifically? I could easily see Geralt's look working for a Paladin, or even a Rogue. Tost offered some insight as to why the collaboration went this direction.
"We landed on something super cool with the Barbarian because we see not just the whole weapons expertise — masters that achieve perfection through massive amounts of training — but also relatively low level of magic use. Using physical prowess in general as their main weapon, and knowledge," Tost said. "I also like to think of the Barbarian's arsenal system as something that can harken a bit to the need for preparation that a Witcher would need to go through to find the right tool for the right cause."
Once The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Songs of the Past becomes available for pre-order, anyone who buys it through Battle.net will get this Geralt-themed Diablo 4 skin. Songs of the Past is slated to launch sometime in 2027, and CD Projekt Red's press release says "more is in the works" for the Diablo 4 collaboration in 2027 as well.
How Edgerunners triumphed over Cyberpunk 2077 for an Overwatch collaboration
Cosmetics based on David from Edgerunners and Talia from Edgerunners 2 will make their way into Blizzard's popular hero shooter. While Edgerunners is a great show that fits in with past Overwatch anime collaborations like One Punch Man, I had to ask why the team didn't look to the Cyberpunk 2077 game for the initial crossover. I'm sure players would love to look like Johnny Silverhand as they play Overwatch, but that's not planned for now.
Amelia Korzycka, CD Projekt Red's expert community and social media manager, admitted that the anime crossover makes more sense because Edgerunners 2 is about to come out, and that the companies have heard clamor for Edgerunners to come to Overwatch before.
‘We've got a lot of feedback overall. Like, when you look at social media, you see a lot of comments: Oh, it would be cool if Overwatch would do a collaboration with Cyberpunk or Edgerunners," Korzycka explained. "And Edgerunners, I think, fits a bit better for now. We will see what the future holds, but we want to start with Edgerunners, especially [because] Edgerunners 2 is almost here, right? We have a really cool crew joining Night City’s arsenal of legends and heroes."
That said, both Korzycka and Blizzard product VP Andrew Guerrero teased that a Cyberpunk 2077-specific collab would be possible one day. "We will see. We want to introduce [Edgerunners] first, and we'll see what's happening next," Korzycka told Polygon, with Guerrero adding, "If players respond in a really positive way, we could always do all kinds of stuff."
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 hits Netflix on Oct. 20. This collaboration will come to Overwatch next year.