Have you ever watched someone have a meltdown as they sketch a police investigation chalk outline over the curve of a video game character’s butt? Maybe you had to be there, but this was the scenario that unfolded in 2016 after Blizzard changed Tracer’s victory pose. And 10 years later, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan is finally setting the record straight on what may be one of gaming’s silliest controversies.
As Overwatch oldheads might recall, Tracer the speed maven once had a post-match pose looking over her shoulder, with her derrière in full view. After a patch, the pixie cut hero still looked behind her — but now, she was balancing on the tiptoe of one foot. The new pose still emphasized her butt, which was very much for the character model. But Overwatch players were absolutely convinced that Blizzard had toned down Tracer’s posterior to make it less sexual.
I cannot emphasize enough how seriously some segments of the player base took this issue. In a YouTube video showcasing the differences between the poses, there are still complaints about the change happening in the year 2026.
“Just for this they should really go bankrupt,” a commenter wrote in March.
“The moment Blizzard officially started to die,” one commenter wrote last year.
The kicker is that, despite all the frothing at the mouth, people were apparently getting worked up over nothing. So says former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, who has recently been on a marketing blitz for his upcoming survival game, The Legend of California. The ex-Blizzard developer has spent the last few months being shockingly candid about his sudden departure from working on Overwatch (2). In a livestream from late March, Kaplan finally put an old conspiracy to rest. Though the livestream is a few weeks old, the moment in question happens about eight hours into the stream — so the news has only started making the rounds on social media now.
“We actually didn’t nerf Tracer’s butt,” Kaplan said in response to a question on Twitch chat. “It stayed exactly the same.”
Kaplan immediately moved on to read other Twitch comments, but the reveal blew the minds of some of his viewers. “No way[,] it was huge at launch,” one reply read.
Ten years later, the gaming industry still periodically undergoes controversies over design choices for female characters. But in the age of Marvel Rivals, a game that proudly exudes thongs and exposed skin, looking back on this controversy feels quaint.
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