Following Jesse McCree's alleged actions during his time at Activision Blizzard, Overwatch casters are avoiding saying his character's name.
McCree is a popular character within Overwatch and it has been a loඣng-standing rumour that he was named after Jesse McCree, the lead designer for several big Blizzard titles. Jesse McCree was among some of the Blizzard developers pictured in the Cosby Suite, linking him to the alleged "frat-boy culture" within the compan🤡y. Because of this, some Overwatch casters are now avoiding saying "McCree" entirely.
, a few fans spotted Overwatch League commentators Brennon ‘Bren’ Hook and Josh ‘Sideshow’ Wilkinson seemingly avoiding saying McCree’s name during gameplay, instead choosing to call him names like "the cowboy". Both Bren and Sideshow then liked a Tweet saying that the pair had stopped saying the character's name, implying that it was purposeful.
Kotaku then followed up the story by contacting Blizzard's esports representative, who said, "I can confirm that this was, in no way, a directive from the Overwatch League or Blizzard". Bren responded to Kotaku, saying, "I can comfortably say that it was a personal decision from Josh and I".
The choice of two prominent Overwatch commentators to avoid saying a character's name has inspired fans to push for the character to get a name change. The Overwatch community think that the developers should reveal that McCree was never really his name, change the name altogether, or even just kill him off.
Whilst it's unlikely that Blizzard will kill McCree off because of his name, the strong community push for a name change makes it more likely that they'll consider reworking the character and removing the references to Jesse McCree.
