Saying Overwatch 2 has had a rocky road since its 2019 reveal would be an understatement, and former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan isn’t a fan of how the game was first announced.
Speaking to Gaming World Interviews, Kaplan didn’t mince words about the BlizzCon 2019 opening ceremony, where Overwatch 2 was shown for the first time, as Blizzard promised numerous features it either walked back or didn’t deliver.
Kaplan said that from 2018 until his departure, he experienced constant friction with Blizzard’s executive leadership over game direction, scheduling, and core game mechanics. This led him to confront leadership about the lack of a clear vision or business model for Overwatch 2, and to question the wisdom of announcing Overwatch 2 at the same time as Diablo 4.
“I got in a huge fight with, at the time, it wasn’t Mike [Morhaime]. I loved Mike, who was the president of Blizzard, and another president of Blizzard, my executive producer, over announcing Overwatch 2. I went into their office, I’m like, ‘What are we doing? We don’t really know what this game is; we don’t know what the business model is. This is a huge mistake.'”
According to Kaplan, the new executives “had a lot to prove” when they joined Blizzard. “They wanted to prove that ‘Blizzard’s back and Blizzard still has it.’ And I’m like, ‘You guys are f***ing idiots,’ you know? I don’t know how else to put it, but after three years of just getting worn down and not agreeing with any of the decisions that were being made on the franchise and not feeling like I had agency anymore–like before it used to be like I’m the game director I get to decide the direction the game goes. And starting in 2018, I lost that, and after three years of fighting for it back, I realized this company belongs to these corporate people now, the Blizzard executive team, the Activision team.”
Kaplan left Blizzard in 2021, saying Activision Blizzard’s financial arm told him that if Overwatch didn’t meet certain financial goals, 1,000 people at the company would be laid off and the blame would fall on him. “The biggest f**k you moment I’ve had in my career–it felt surreal to be in that condition,” Kaplan said earlier this year.
These days, Kaplan is working on The Legend of California at the new studio he co-founded, Kintsugiyama. The Blizzard veteran recently spoke to GameSpot about the “humbling” reality of being an indie dev and more.