Activision Blizzard has renamed Overwatch hero Jesse McCree to Cole Cassidy.
It is important to keep in mind what is going on within Activision Blizzard at this time regarding ongoing allegations about the work culture. The ongoing lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against the company is over reported toxic workplace culture. The bulk of the suit focuses on “violations of the state’s civil rights and equal pay laws,” specifically regarding the treatment of women and other marginalized groups. To learn more about the proceedings thus far, including details listed in the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, please check out our previous coverage here.
Amidst California’s ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, which is occurring over reported toxic workplace culture, it was revealed that Overwatch character Jesse McCree was named after a Blizzard veteran of the same name who left the company in August. The real-life McCree was one of the men in the picture that appears to show some Activision Blizzard devs posing together with a photo of Bill Cosby in the room reportedly informally called the Cosby Suite.
The Overwatch team announced on August 26 that its hero, McCree, would be renamed and that moving forward, no Overwatch heroes would be named after real-life team members. Today, the team announced that the hero previously known as Jesse McCree now goes by the name Cole Cassidy.
“The first thing a renegade loses is their name, and this one gave up his long ago,” the official Overwatch Twitter account’s tweet reads. “Running from his past meant running from himself, and each passing year only widened the divide between who he had been and what he had become. But in every cowboy’s life, there comes a time when he was to stop and make a stand.”
“To make this new Overwatch better – to make things right – he had to be honest with his team and himself. The cowboy he was rode into the sunset, and Cole Cassidy faced the world at dawn.”
The name “Cole Cassidy” will go live in Overwatch on October 26.
What do you think of this new name? Let us know in the comments below!
