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Many eyes are currently on Activision Blizzard due to the ongoing lawsuit filed by employees and the State of California against the massive game development company. The studio is largely known for games such as Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and many more. However, its connection with Overwatch has far more disturbing roots involving the game's cowboy hero, Jesse McCree.
During the development of Overwatch, McCree was named after the now ex-employee, Jesse McCree. He was mostly known for his design work within the Diablo games, but more alleged information about him has been revealed with the ongoing lawsuits. Because of this, many Overwatch fans began to call for the character McCree to be given a different name in-game to avoid any association with the former employee.
Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Harassment.
It has been confirmed that McCree in Overwatch will be recieving a name change, but the new name has yet to be revealed. These questions however pale in comparison to the real word problems connected to this change in the first place.
The Lawsuit Against Activision Blizzard
The lawsuit against Activision Blizzard was officially filed on July 20, 2021 by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing, due to the working conditions within the company. Many employees cited high levels of gender-based harrassment and discrimination toward the women working there, with many allegations of sexual harrassment and assault. Over 3,000 employees at Activision Blizzard signed a letter to the company's management for recognition of what the victims were put through.
Initially, the company downplayed the allegations, which led to many leaving the studios. On July 27, 2021, an email was sent by CEO Bobby Kotick to the employees of Activision Blizzard acknowledging the tone deaf initial response and promising to move toward correcting the culture previously accepted within the company.
None of the demands put out by the employees who organized the walkout however were mentioned, keeping tensions high. These demands included an end to the mandatory arbitration clauses in employee contracts that many cited as a way to protect the abusers working within the company. Employees additionally demanded public knowledge of how much every person within is being paid and performance data. This is due to accusations of gender-based pay inequality and promotion biases.
Because of the lawsuit, multiple big names within Blizzard have been announced to be no longer with the company. Despite this seeming to be a step in favor for those in protest, many were outraged to discover that the law firm hired by the company for the lawsuit was WilmerHale, a firm infamous for its connections with "union busting" and suppressing workers' rights, according to employees. Activision Blizzard executive Fran Townsend additionally tweeted an article named "The Problem with Whistleblowing" on August 1, 2021 and blocking many employees on Twitter.
At this time, the lawsuit has not gone to court, but new amendments have been added. This includes allegations of Activision Blizzard directly interfering with the investigation itself and tampering with evidence. Many eyes are currently on this case with it being possible for even more disturbing details to be revealed.
Blizzard's Jesse McCree and the "BlizzCon Cosby Crew"
One of the employees of Activision Blizzard accused of being a perpetrator of the abuse happening behind the scenes is Jesse McCree. He was among the big names announced to be no longer with the company over the course of the walkout. This is due to him being one of the employees shown in screenshots to be part of the "Cosby Suite" and the "Blizzcon Cosby Crew." The room was the hotel room of Blizzard employee Alex Afrasiabi, a man who allegedly hit on female employees, attempted to kiss them, and hug them. This would all be in the view of other employees who would allegedly have to physically remove him from the female employees themselves.
The hotel room, known as the "Cosby Suite," had a large framed photograph of convicted rapist Bill Cosby. This photo however was taken before the 2018 arrest of Cosby with the picture being from Blizzcon 2013. Screenshots meanwhile show conversations with a group chat known at the "Blizzcon Cosby Crew," with Dave Kosak stating that he's "gathering the hot chixx for the Coz." The conversation continues with Kosak telling Afrasiabi that he "can't marry ALL of them". McCree responds with telling Kosak that he "misspelled fuck."
As previously state, Jesse McCree is no longer involved with Activision Blizzard and the character of Jesse McCree within Overwatch will be given a different name. Like with the email from Kotick, however, many see this as a performative action to try and improve Blizzard's public relations, instead of making actual improvements.
Blizzard's Performative Distraction
With the recent announcement of McCree's name change, a lot of Overwatch fans are talking. There's a lot of speculation of how it will affect the lore, what his new name will be, and other talks about the character. Some however feel that this big public announcement is meant to be a distraction.
By having the name change be a big thing, there will be plenty of people who think that Activision Blizzard is cooperating with the protesting employees and see the company in a good light. This makes it easy for those who don't look in deep to see what law firm was hired for the suit, the demands that still haven't been met, and what could potentially be a long legal battle. While many would say that it's good to not have employees associated with sexism and abuse get characters named after them, it could be compared to a baby steps in a marathon run. The effort is still there, but it doesn't make a large difference to the actual situation at hand.
This lawsuit will likely continue on much further into 2021 with many more allegations also likely surfacing. Many are still on the side of the employees fighting for fair workplace conditions and proper action being taken against those who abuse their power in order to harm others.
Overwatch is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Sources: Kotaku, Activision Blizzard, and PC Gamer