While Overwatch released with a diverse cast of playable characters, the game's roster has expanded exponentially over time, with the most recent addition being the Overwatch hero Sigma. One aspect of this new character that many Overwatch players have noticed is his lack of foot apparel, and Blizzard has now commented on this matter.
Many questions surrounding Sigma's backstory have already been answered, but the question of Sigma's bare feet remained. For many fans, Blizzard's choice to leave battle-ready Sigma barefoot was a bizarre one, and some of these fans made their concerns public, prompting a response from someone who worked on the Sigma character.
"We decided to keep the feet bare to sell the 'asylum' look a bit more," said Overwatch concept artist Qiu Fang. Fang added, "in many institutions, patients are not allowed to have shoes because they might cause harm with the laces."
"While Sigma isn't necessarily in danger of that, we felt that having no shoes helped draw that connection," stated Fang. He continued to say that shoes or boots would have made him look like a generic combatant, so removing those helped to distinguish the character. However, Fang indicated that players might see shoe-wearing variants of Sigma in the future, stating that Blizzard will "be making skins with shoes on him in the future!"
Given these statements from Fang, it can be summarized that Sigma was given bare feet to both help make him more unique and convey that he has been institutionalized and experimented on. It remains to be seen if fans will find this explanation satisfactory. Regardless, Overwatch players can still look forward to having a new character option in the game.
This popular first-person shooter has been extremely successful since its release, as Overwatch has hit $1 billion in in-game spending. With routine content updates like the addition of Sigma, it's easy to see how such a figure was reached, as success and fan satisfaction often go hand in hand with a developer that shows it is truly devoted to the playerbase.
Overwatch is currently available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Source(s): ArtStation (via ComicBook)