Blizzard has dealt with a lot of cultural controversy since Overwatch's launch with its diverse cast of characters and settings. One of the first involved a victory pose where her posterior is on full display, which resulted in outcries of sexual objectification. The pose was quickly replaced with another that's visually inspired by a pinup poster. Other talking points include whether Pharah's Thunderbird and Raindancer skins might be racist to Blizzard's lack of research when designing Dorado around an Italian town called Manarola. However, the developer's list of questionable fumbles has culminated into its most egregious error in the new Junkertown map: a sign said "takeout" instead of "takeaway."
It all started when a Reddit user named "RagingWinston" pointed out that the new Australian locale contains a fast food establishment defined by a culturally inaccurate term. Australians (and the British) call it "takeaway," whereas Americans use the term "takeout." The Reddit user speculated, "Maybe in post-apocalyptic Australia we have resorted to American terms," but Game Director Jeff Kaplan wasn't going to let this go, who responded to the post and swore that the next patch would remedy the developer's "cultural insensitivity."
I'd like to offer a direct apology to the entire country of Australia. Please forgive our cultural insensitivity. We will fix this in an upcoming patch (the sign travesty will most likely go live for some period before being fixed).Less than a day later, Blizzard's Engineering Manager, Andrew Wang, removed the word and replaced it with the correct one.
https://twitter.com/SomerEsat/status/902776539829456896
Professional eSports player Muselk, who's very prominent in the Overwatch scene, expressed how monumental of a day this was for his homeland.
https://twitter.com/MrMuselk/status/902811531380797441
Indeed, Overwatch looks to be playable now that this part of the Junkertown map has been properly addressed. You can test out the map on the PTR right now before it goes publicly live at a later date.
