Ex-Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Reveals Why He Left Blizzard

If you performed Overwatch again when there was no point out of the sequel, you positively keep in mind Jeff Kaplan, the gamers’ beloved director who introduced them information. When he left the company in 2021it was devastating, and his identify has been immortalized within the “Jeff, come back” phrase each OW fan says when Blizzard pronounces a brand new disastrous replace.

Many assume his departure left Overwatch 2 within the sorry state it launched, however we’ll by no means know, though the knowledge he revealed about his choice to stop may assist this rumor.

During Lex Fridman’s podcast, Kaplan shared the unsurprising motive: company stress. Back then, the Overwatch League (OWL) was the management’s focus and, of their opinion, “a major derail.” Blizzard, Kaplan included, thought it was the way forward for esports, and wished to develop it, embody perks like participant safety, make esports “more first-class citizen.”

However, the joy that grew across the OWL because of its promotion, which promised that it could be extra well-liked than the NFL, made individuals investing within the groups extra demanding. Then, Overwatch acquired a cope with Twitch, and it wasn’t going that properly, so the workforce was below numerous stress. In the tip, the state of affairs became what any artistic discipline turns into below company management: