For as much emphasis Blizzard puts on the multiplayer,Overwatchis a game brimming with lore for players to dive into surrounding its roster of heroes. One of the more colorful backgrounds belongs toCole Cassidy, the gunslinger formerly known as Jesse McCree, who recently underwent the name change due to real-world controversy around his original namesake. However, Blizzard is not going to leave die-hard players hanging and will address the character’s name change inOverwatch’s universe as part of a new comic.
SinceOverwatchwas released in 2016, Blizzard has cultivated it into a multimedia franchise stretching beyond the games industry. Animated shorts are among the most popular pieces of media Blizzard has produced to promote the game and expand its universe, typically diving into various heroes and key events from theOverwatchuniverse. The studio also partnered with Dark Horse Comics to create a digital comic series, expanding the narrative beyond the shorts and PvE events in-game.
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Dark Horse Comicspreviewed its latestOverwatchdigital comic series with GameSpot, which is set to focus on Cole Cassidy. The series, titledOverwatch: New Blood, will follow the game’s resident cowboy as he looks to assemble a new crew following his run-in with his old gang portrayed in theReunionanimated short. As mentioned, the comic will also provide a narrative cause for the name change and how that may affect Cassidy going forward.
The digital comic will play out over five parts and coincides with a new in-game event, also titledNew Blood, focused on Cassidy.
Blizzard changing the hero’s name from Jesse McCree to Cole Cassidy is due to the ongoing harassment suit brought against Activision Blizzard by theState of California. The suit alleges several women inside Blizzard were subject to ongoing sexual harassment, were often passed over for promotions, and paid considerably less than their male counterparts.
Jesse McCree’s namesake, aformer game designer at Blizzard, was fired after screenshot texts were released online involving the game designer. McCree was one of several Blizzard employees in the chat from the 2013 BlizzCon discussing the room of former creative director Alex Afrasiabi. McCree and the other employees joked about Afrasiabi’s room, calling it the “Cosby Suite,” due to the amount of alcohol in the room and Afrasiabi’s ongoing harassment of women both at the event and in the studio.
Jesse McCree was fired from Blizzard following the texts' release and the name change was announced shortly after. McCree’s firing coincided with several other firings and departures from Blizzard amid the ongoing lawsuit.
Overwatchis currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
