Jeff Kaplan Reckons Blizzard’s Bosses Were ‘F***ing Idiots’ for Rushing Out Overwatch 2

Jeff Kaplan has had five years to cool off about leaving Blizzard. He hasn’t. In a new hour-long interview with the Gaming World Interviews YouTube channel, the former Overwatch director says his last three years there were “constant fighting with the executive staff about the direction of the game”.

The bit everyone’s quoting is about the 2019 Overwatch 2 reveal, which he says he fought against. His summary of the new bosses who pushed it through: “you guys are fucking idiots, you know?”

What Kaplan says went wrong

• The timeline: from 2018 until he quit in 2021, Kaplan says he was fighting Blizzard and Activision executives over where Overwatch was going.
• The reveal: he was against announcing Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon 2019. “We don’t really know what this game is. We don’t know what the business model is. This is a huge mistake,” he recalls saying.
• The double booking: Blizzard revealed Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV at the same show. “Either let Overwatch have a moment or let Diablo have a moment,” Kaplan says.
• The hero mandate: he says execs wanted him to sell heroes. “That was a line I was not willing to break. It was the craziest mandate.”
• The content drought: according to Kotaku, he says the team was banned from making new heroes for the original Overwatch so it could work on the sequel.
• Losing the wheel: “Starting in 2018, I lost that,” he says of his control as game director.

He didn’t name names

Kaplan doesn’t say which executives he means, only that “they had a lot to prove as new executives” and wanted to show “Blizzard’s back”. He’s clear it wasn’t former president Mike Morhaime: “I loved Mike.”

He also says he’s “right there with” fans who were angry about the game after 2018. “I gave up a 19-year career at Blizzard to say, ‘I think this is bullshit,'” he told the channel.

Turns out he called it

Overwatch 2 finally launched in 2022, and most of what was promised at BlizzCon 2019 never really turned up. Kotaku points out the story campaign and co-op plans largely fell over, and Blizzard has since dropped the 2 from the name entirely.

The heroes thing happened too, in a way. VGC notes new heroes at launch sat in the battle pass, where free players had to grind for them, before Blizzard backed down and made them unlock instantly.

Where Kaplan is now

Kaplan now runs Kintsugiyama, which is making a western action game called The Legend of California. Steam lists it as coming soon, with no date yet.

Blizzard’s been busy with other things lately, like WoW: Forever’s record launch and leaving Oceanic players in the dark. Literally.

Our take

Fair play to the man. Announcing a sequel nobody had designed yet, with no business model, then quietly binning the PvE that was its whole selling point, is about as idiotic as it gets.

Yes, Kaplan has his own game to flog now, and ex-employees always remember themselves as the hero. But the receipts are public, and every one of them backs him up.

Overwatch is in decent shape these days, no thanks to the suits who wrecked its middle years. Catch up on everything on our Overwatch page, and tell us if Kaplan’s right in the GetRekt Discord.

Sources

• VGC: Jeff Kaplan says there was ‘constant fighting’ between him and Blizzard years before he left
• Kotaku: Jeff Kaplan blames Overwatch 2’s messy reveal on Blizzard hubris
• Gaming World Interviews (YouTube): Jeff Kaplan Tell All Interview
• Steam: The Legend of California
• Steam: Overwatch