McCree's Name Change Won't Happen The Way You Think
Activision Blizzard recently confirmed that popular "Overwatch" character McCree would have his name changed officially to Cole Cassidy. However, it seems some players have misinterpreted the way this change is going to be reflected both in-game and in "Overwatch" lore. Community manager AndyB recently confirmed on the Blizzard forums that the upcoming Cole Cassidy event will not celebrate or even really make a huge deal out of the character's much-anticipated name change.
"The upcoming Cassidy event is not to reveal his new name, nor do we intend to have Cowboy's new name be a celebratory moment. What's most likely driving confusion is the fact that we decided to delay the original event to account for the updated name," AndyB wrote.
The "Overwatch" team delayed the McCree-centric event in question back in August, announcing that the cowboy hero's name would be changed at some point in the near future. At the time, the dev team explained "we want to integrate this change into that story arc," which led fans to believe that the name change itself would be a pivotal moment in the story.
The name change for McCree came after Activision Blizzard was sued for discrimination, with McCree's real-life namesake Jesse McCree having alleged involvement. McCree was later ousted from his position as director of "Diablo 4" and from the company (via Kotaku). While the name change is rolling out in a way that people didn't quite expect, fans on Blizzard forums have had positive responses to AndyB's comment.
Fan reactions to not celebrating McCree/Cassidy's name change
Many of the responses to AndyB's post aimed to congratulate the "Overwatch" team for making the change and not making the newly-named Cole Cassidy the main focus. "It would have been kinda insensitive to pat yourselves on the back with a whole event for just doing the right thing, so I'm glad it's not the case at all," Vitae wrote.
Among the positive responses, however, were fans questioning how the new name would fit into the game's lore. Despite the real-life reasons for the name change, some people were concerned that there would never be a canonical explanation.
Fans of "Overwatch" can be very invested in the lore of the game, so it is understandable that they would want a good in-universe explanation in-universe for the name change, rather than a simple retcon. That said, there's a whole lot more going on behind the scenes at Activision Blizzard than this new character direction, so players may have to be patient for just such an explanation.
"Overwatch 2," which is set to change the series forever, recently delivered fans some terrible news when it was revealed that the game has been delayed until sometime in 2023. Maybe that will give the developers enough time to hash out Cole Cassidy's true origins.