
Mccree overwatch Patch#
A free-for-all map will be released in the meantime to patch the hole in the content calendar. The character was to be featured prominently in the game’s next major story update, but that content has now been delayed until later this year to address the current situation. The character’s new name will be revealed in a forthcoming lore update. Both stated the decision to stop naming the character was a personal choice. Overwatch League shout casters Brennon ‘Bren’ Hook and Josh ‘Sideshow’ Wilkinson no longer use the name during live broadcasts. Prior to this morning’s announcement, many in the Overwatch community had chosen to stop referring to the McCree character by name. References to Barriga and LeCraft in other games are also being removed. He was terminated with Diablo IV game director Luis Barriga and World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft. Afrasiabi was named in the lawsuit after his 2020 termination for “misconduct.” References to Afrasiabi will be removed from World of Warcraft.Īctivision Blizzard confirmed that, as of two weeks ago, McCree is no longer employed at Blizzard. A recent California lawsuit accused Activision Blizzard of fostering a culture of sexual harassment. Those images contained a text thread in which World of Warcraft designer Alex Afrasiabi wrote about marrying women brought to the room. Calls for Blizzard to rename the character began to grow following a Kotaku report that surfaced Facebook images of McCree with other Blizzard staff in 2013, standing before a large portrait of Bill Cosby at a BlizzCon hotel room referred to as the “Cosby Suite.” McCree was most recently working as the lead game designer on Diablo IV. Long-time Blizzard designer Jesse McCree was the character’s namesake. The AU Review believes and stands with the victims who have come forward to share their stories. It would be unethical to cover Activision Blizzard titles without bringing this to your attention. At the time of writing, the company is engulfed in a court battle regarding allegations of historic and systemic workplace sexual harassment and mistreatment of marginalised workers. “As we continue to discuss how we best live up to our values and to demonstrate our commitment to creating a game world 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,” reads the post.Įditor’s note: Covering video games produced by Activision Blizzard is fraught at present. The announcement came via a social media post on official Overwatch channels.Ī message from the Overwatch team. Overwatch 2 does not have a release date at the moment, but Blizzard does not expect it to be ready this year.Activision Blizzard will rename Overwatch character Jesse McCree in a future update. McCree was a big one to take care of, and though he’s since become Cole Cassidy, there’s a lot of work to do the justify the name change in-universe. Going forward, in-game characters will no longer be named after real employees and we will be more thoughtful and discerning about adding real world references in future Overwatch content.”īlizzard Entertainment is currently working on developing a sequel to the hit game. Jesse McCree, a Blizzard employee who offered his name to Overwatch ’s leading cowboy was found in the eye of the storm, and as such, the company made an effort to tidy up their games.

Since we want to integrate this change into that story arc, we will be delaying the new arc until later this year and instead launch a new FFA map this September. In the near term, we had planned to kick off a narrative arc in September supported with new story and game content, of which McCree was a key part. “We realize that any change to such a well-loved and central hero in the game’s fiction will take time to roll out correctly, and we’ll share updates as this work progresses. In the tweet, Overwatch developers addressed the issue/challenge of changing the name of a hero after five years: It is unknown yet what the hero’s new name will be, but given that Overwatch still has a large and active player base, the new name will likely be established sometime soon. RELATED: Activision Blizzard Has Let Go Three Senior Developers Following Company-Wide Allegations
