New ‘Overwatch’ Narrative Arc Delayed Due To Character Name Controversy

The production on a new narrative story for “Overwatch” has been hampered following the reckoning at Activision Blizzard over their alleged abuse and harassment of employees, and because one of the game’s characters shares a name with a developer who is embroiled in controversy.

Blizzard originally intended to create a new “Overwatch” story that heavily involves the popular character Jesse McCree, who also happens to be named after one of the now ex-developers of the game. The former developer got caught in the middle of the torrent of sexual harassment allegations that the company is currently facing.

Blizzard is now trying to rename the game character to better reflect the company’s standards. The change to McCree’s name will take time and the developers are trying to execute the change in a way that doesn’t interfere with the game’s continuity and established lore. This decision has inadvertently affected Blizzard’s plan to release the new “Overwatch” story arc since McCree is set to play a pivotal role in its events. The development of this new arc will most likely proceed once the issue with the character’s name has been resolved.

New story beats and game content were planned to be released together with the narrative arc this September, but the complications regarding McCree and the reflection of his name on Blizzard’s virtues have forced the developers to delay the narrative arc’s release to later this year. However, a new FFA map is still scheduled to release next month.

Future characters will no longer be named after real people following this event, Blizzard said in a tweet. The company mentioned that doing so will help reinforce that “Overwatch” is set in a different universe and that the game is born out of the efforts of their entire team.

Work is currently in progress regarding McCree’s name change and Blizzard will be actively sharing their progress to the fanbase as soon as any news is available. In the meantime, the “Overwatch” patch cycle will proceed as per usual.

The California lawsuit against Activision Blizzard is still ongoing. This may cause further delays or disruptions in the developers’ projects until the bigger issue is resolved.