Blizzard just announced that Overwatch hero MacCree is about to change his name due to the recent lawsuit filed by the state of California against the company. The reason is very simple: the character’s name was based on Jesse McCree, Blizzard’s lead level designer, who was recently banned from the company due to allegations of harassment and to have contributed to a toxic work environment.
Overwatch: Blizzard will change the name of MacCree
Activision Blizzard between going through a period of strong renewal, on the other hand it could not be otherwise after what emerged from the lawsuit involving the company during the last few weeks. According to what emerged, the situation inside the software house was aberrant, with sexual harassment on the agenda and a work environment made toxic by the management figures at the head of the company.
One of these figures is precisely Jesse McCree, which has already been fired by the development studio, but not only. Even the eponymous Overwatch character will change his name, since the latter was a tribute to the designer. Here is what we read in the official press release:
“We built the Overwatch universe around the idea that inclusivity, fairness and hope are the building blocks of a better future. They are central to the game and to the Overwatch team. As we continue to discuss how to best live our values and demonstrate our commitment to creating a game world that reflects them, we believe it is necessary to change the name of the hero currently known as McCree to something that better expresses what Overwatch stands for. ” .
However, the hero will not change his name out of the blue and the Blizzard developers have specified that this change of direction will be contextualized and implemented through a narrative arc entirely dedicated to him:
“We understand that any change to such a beloved and central hero in the game’s narrative will take time to deploy properly, and we will share updates as this work progresses. In the short term, we planned to kick off a story arc in September supported by new story and game content, of which McCree was a key part. As we want to integrate this change into that story arc, we will be delaying the new arc until the end of this year and instead we will be launching a new FFA map this September. From now on, the characters in the game will no longer have the names of real employees and we will be more careful and selective in adding references to the real world in future Overwatch content. “
It is important to note that there are also several locations in World of Warcraft named after MacCree, but at the moment there is no news regarding a change in the nomenclature of these places as well. However, it is very likely that they will in turn be modified.