Following the California DFEH’s sexual harassment lawsuit, Blizzard recently let go of former-lead designer Jesse McCree due to his involvement with the infamous ‘Cosby Suite’ first reported on by Kotaku about a month ago. Now, the controversial games studio has announced that it is also changing the name of a character named after McCree in its popular hero-based shooter, Overwatch.
Blizzard says goodbye to McCree for good
The Overwatch team announced the name change via its Twitter account.
A message from the Overwatch team. pic.twitter.com/2W3AV7Pv6X
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 26, 2021
“As we continue to discuss how we best live up to our values and to demonstrate our commitment to creating a game that reflects them, we believe it’s necessary to change the name of the hero currently known as McCree to something that better represents what Overwatch stands for,” the announcement reads.
It goes on to explain that, from now on, in-game characters will no longer be named after real employees, presumably to avoid a similar incident to this one. Overwatch fans in the comments rightfully point out that this seems a bit like band-aiding rather than making any strides towards fixing the main issue that led to the McCree controversy: Activision Blizzard’s ‘frat-boy’ workplace culture.
The Overwatch team doesn’t say when McCree’s name will be changed, or what it will be changed to, but does say that upcoming story content is being delayed to later this year so that the new name can be reworked into the Overwatch canon.
The California DFEH’s suit against Activision Blizzard has resulted in months of turmoil for the games studio, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The DFEH recently updated its initial suit, adding a section alleging that Activision Blizzard repressed and withheld evidence that would support the rest of the suit’s allegations.