'Overwatch' Character McCree Renamed Cole Cassidy By Activision Blizzard

"Overwatch" players are soon going to find out that one of their long-time favorite heroes now goes by a new name.

The DPS character Jesse McCree has now been renamed to Cole Cassidy by "Overwatch" developer/publisher Activision Blizzard, following continued unrest in the company, writes Game Informer.

The new name for McCree is scheduled to go live on October 26, a full two months after the initial decision to rename him was announced.

"Overwatch" tweeted about the name change along with a message that explains their decision:

For the uninitiated, the character McCree was actually named after a real-life member of the dev team, Jesse McCree, who was involved in the "Cosby Suite" controversy.

The controversy is connected to allegations of widespread sexual harassment, minority abuse, and a toxic workplace culture that has embroiled Activision Blizzard since late July.

It was the reason why former and current employees staged walkouts and strikes, and also why the company has been sued by the California Department of Fair Employment.

With the rename confirmed, Activision Blizzard has also stated that they're going to remove/change any references, locations, and names connected to anyone implicated in the lawsuit, writes GameRant.

Why Is This 'Overwatch' Rename A Big Deal?

As previously mentioned, the renaming of Jesse McCree to Cole Cassidy is Blizzard's way of removing any references in "Overwatch" to real-life employees who have been implicated in the lawsuit.

The employee (who also goes by the name Jesse McCree) is one of several others, mostly men, who posed with a portrait of embattled comedian Bill Cosby in a hotel suite during BlizzCon 2013.

They called the room the "Bill Cosby Suite," and it meant way more than just the name. One of the captions in the photo, according to Game Informer, read "gathering hot chixx for the Coz," which meant they were talking about hooking up with women.

So many other disturbing stories are involved in the "Bill Cosby Suite" (as well as the entire sexual harassment lawsuit in general) that they deserve their own article.

For now, though, all you have to know is that McCree (the employee) has already left the company back in August. He was then followed by 20 more employees this month, all of whom got fired as part of Activision Blizzard's workplace misconduct investigation.

What's Next For 'Overwatch?'

For now, the introduction of Cole Cassidy is one of the many things that the studio has to do in order to clean up its tarnished image.

With the tweet that announced the rename, the studio called out the former employee, saying that "the first thing a renegade loses is their name, and this one gave up his long ago."

Furthermore, the tweet also read: "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."

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce