Jeff Kaplan says executives took Overwatch out of his hands years before he quit Blizzard

Jeff Kaplan, the man who led Overwatch from its 2016 launch, says the fight to keep control of the game began years before he walked out of Blizzard. In an interview on the Gaming World Interviews YouTube channel, as reported by VGC, Kaplan says the clashes with Blizzard’s executive team started in 2018 and continued until he left in 2021 after 19 years at the studio.

“Constant fighting” from 2018

Kaplan draws a clear line between the game’s early years and what followed. He says he’s happy to take the blame for anything players loved or hated in 2016 and 2017, but that after 2018 his stance changed to one of agreeing with the complaints. In his words, he gave up a 19-year career to say he thought the direction was “bullshit”.

Kaplan says there was “constant fighting with the executive staff about the direction of the game” from 2018 onwards. Kotaku, which also covered the interview, puts the period at 2018 to 2021. Kaplan told the interviewer that, as game director, he used to decide where Overwatch went, but that this ended in 2018. He says he spent three years trying to win that agency back before deciding the company “belongs to these corporate people now” and that he didn’t want his name on a project he didn’t believe in.

The Overwatch 2 reveal

The sharpest example Kaplan gives is the decision to announce Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon 2019. He says he was vocally against the announcement. He recalls telling executives the team didn’t know what the game was or what its business model would be, and calling the plan a huge mistake.

He was also unhappy about the timing. He felt that revealing Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV at the same BlizzCon left neither game with its own spotlight. Kaplan argues the new executives were trying to prove that Blizzard still had it, and he says he told them they were idiots, with an expletive attached.

Kaplan names nobody. VGC points out that J. Allen Brack became Blizzard president in 2018, the year Kaplan says the problems began, and that Kaplan has no complaint about Brack’s predecessor, Mike Morhaime. Brack was among those who stepped down after the 2021 scandal in which Activision Blizzard was sued by the State of California over harassment and discrimination allegations. VGC reports that the case was settled for $54 million in 2023.

Kotaku adds that the BlizzCon 2019 presentation promised a story campaign, co-op missions and a competitive ecosystem shared with the original game. Little of that has materialised since the 2022 launch, and Blizzard has since dropped the “2” from the title. Kaplan also cites a “revolving door” of business executives making creative calls, including a ban on new heroes for the original game because the team had to work on the sequel, which Kotaku links to the content drought that followed.

The paywalled heroes

Kaplan also says Blizzard pushed him to sell heroes outright, calling it “the craziest mandate” and a line he wouldn’t cross. VGC says a version of the idea did appear after Overwatch 2 launched, when new heroes sat on the first tier of the paid battle pass. Players on the free track had to grind for much longer to unlock them, which put them at a disadvantage in competitive play. That system was later phased out, and VGC says all new heroes are now unlocked instantly.

A very public run of interviews

The comments are the latest in a run of candid remarks from Kaplan. In an earlier interview, he described his biggest “f-you” moment at Blizzard. Kotaku’s summary says it came when an Activision Blizzard executive threatened to lay off a thousand people unless Overwatch hit a profit target that year. Kotaku reports he’s now studio lead at Kintsugiyama, where he’s working on the western action game The Legend of California.

Overwatch itself looks healthier. Kotaku notes the game is wrapping up its 10th anniversary year with 10 new heroes and a revamped story, though VGC adds that the skins have become very costly. Kotaku also reports that Kaplan says he doesn’t keep up with the game these days.