A while ago, Blizzard announced that it would be renaming the character McCree in-game, as part of its efforts to change the name of any characters in its portfolio of games that were named after its employees.
As part of this effort, McCree will now be known as Cole Cassidy in Overwatch, Overwatch 2, and any encompassing lore, as was revealed by Blizzard on Twitter.
The change was not something that could be made immediately, due to several different pieces of Overwatch lore and content including the cowboy being planned, and so Blizzard revealed that the character would be getting a new identity in the near future, which just so happened to be very recently.
As part of the name change, Blizzard also gave this short statement: "The first thing a renegade loses is their name, and this one gave up his a long time ago.
Running from his past meant running from himself, and each passing year only widened the divide between who he had been and what he had become. But in every cowboy's life, there comes a time when he has to stop and make a stand.
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."
You can check out Cole Cassidy in Overwatch when the latest update lands tomorrow, October 26.