Now it's official: Wild West bounty hunter Jesse McCree ceases to exist on the 26th. Blizzard, who had made the decision to rename him in August, is expected to call the same model Cole Cassidy. For all intents and purposes, the former never existed. That's because the inspiration for the name, one of the creators of Overwatch, was fired in a case of sexual harassment.
Meet Cole Cassidy.
Rides into Overwatch October 26. pic.twitter./CT6PmaNXNs
Game designer Jesse McCree lent his name to the 'Overwatch' character and was dropped from Blizzard after being one of the main indictees in a lawsuit filed against the company for sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
McCree was a longtime employee of the company and worked on the 'World of Warcraft' expansions, 'Diablo 3' and the upcoming game 'Diablo 4′.
At the time, the company stated: “To better reflect the fact that Overwatch is the creation of a team and to reinforce that this is a fictional world and notably different from reality, from now on, game characters will not have names of names. company employees. So let's change the name of the character we know McCree. This change will happen to the game and all content going forward.”
outlaw classic
The inspiration for the new name is likely real-life criminal Butch Cassidy (1866-1908). He was leader of the most successful gang of train robbers in the Old West, and he died, far from home, in a confrontation with the Bolivian armed forces.
Ironically enough for the inspiration of a shooter character, Cassidy boasted that he had never, in his career, killed anyone.
To celebrate the 'Overwatch' name change (and perhaps bury the memory of the sexual harassment case), Blizzard is also giving away a free name change (the BattleTag) on the Battle.net server. Valid from today until November 5th.
Read more:
- Blizzard president leaves company after harassment accusations
- Blizzard changes character name from 'Overwatch'
- Activision Blizzard employees criticize company stance on harassment process
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