
Years after Overwatch’s release, Widowmaker remains as mysterious as ever: Is Amélie still in there? Is Widowmaker a completely separate person? Are they one and the same? One holiday comic shows Widowmaker visiting her late husband’s grave, suggesting that, perhaps, Widowmaker and Amélie are one and the same.
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With a slowed heart that gives her pristine control over her sniper rifle and a cool, emotionless demeanor, she’s a woman to be feared on the battlefield and a crack shot in the right hands. Amélie was eventually kidnapped by the elite, anti-Overwatch Talon organization and brainwashed to kill her lover, beginning her transformation into the blue-skinned Widowmaker. Years ago, she was called Amélie Lacroix, and she was married to Overwatch agent Gérard Lacroix. Overwatch’s iconic femme fatale wasn’t always an elite sniper. Line up your shots correctly, and you can quickly do damage to some of the game’s squishiest heroes. In-game, her abilities mostly focus on high aim precision and versatile movement.

Sojourn Image via Activision BlizzardĪ versatile cybernetic with high damage output, Canadian-born Vivian “Soujourn” Chase is a newcomer in name only: In the series’ lore, she teamed up with Soldier 76 and Ana early on in the organization’s history, making her one of the longest-standing Overwatch members. Turns out you don’t have to be a hard butch to be a strong lady. Yes, Brigitte proves that femme and femme-leaning women can be big, strong, and buff too. Instead, she’s right on the line between “futch” and “soft femme,” dancing between the two categories depending on what she’s doing. She’s incredibly strong, extremely competent with blacksmithing, and yet Overwatch avoids casting her as a butch. What makes Brigitte such an incredible Overwatch hero isn’t just her in-game abilities. And Overwatch, despite its company’s immense problems, is also a testament to the change women can enact in the products video game players enjoy. These women and their allies are trying to change things for the better at Activision Blizzard, inside and out. When we do so, we should also honor the hard work of the many, many incredible women who worked on Overwatch, who led the game’s female character design, who have truly built something special in their time. We can and should hold Activision Blizzard accountable. Today, Activision Blizzard employees past and present are trying to hold the company accountable, many of which sharing their stories and risking their careers in the process. Activision Blizzard is a crowning example, one already established by League developer Riot Games, which has faced its own slew of workplace sexual harassment and abuse allegations. Just because a game has great female characters does not necessarily mean its workplace treats women fairly. The initial California lawsuit states that Activision Blizzard fosters a “pervasive frat boy workplace culture.” In one of many examples, male employees would regularly “drink copious amounts of alcohol” and “crawl their way through various cubicles in the office,” targeting women as they worked. One lawsuit was filed as recently as March 2022. This culminated in a widely reported lawsuit filed by California against the developer in July 2021, along with a slew of follow-up suits over labor practices and sexual harassment at the company. Activision Blizzard, the company behind the Overwatch franchise, has been embattled in incredibly egregious allegations of workplace sexual harassment and retaliation.


However, it’s hard to get too excited over Overwatch 2. Overwatch 2, which premiered its PvP beta in late April, promises to build off this roster, with the game’s first Black female hero officially entering the battlefield: former Overwatch captain Sojourn. And like both League and Dota, its playable characters stole the show with their fantastic character designs and lovable, distinct personalities.Įarly on, Overwatch received plenty of love for one of its most memorable features: Its robust cast of female characters. Easy to learn but difficult to master, Overwatch took off overnight. Here was a shooter that combined class-based multiplayer gameplay with the kind of unique, specialty heroes seen in online battle arenas like Dota 2 and League of Legends. Hero shooters are a dime a dozen these days, but when Blizzard launched Overwatch back in 2016, it was revolutionary for its time.
