Ex-Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan has revealed he left Blizzard after being threatened with layoffs. News of Kaplan's departure from the company shook the gaming world back in 2021, and a lot has changed since then, including Microsoft's acquisition of the company and the debut of a second Overwatch game. Now, five years later, the former Blizzard dev has shed light on why he decided to resign after so long.
While Overwatch 2 faltered a bit at launch, it managed to grow beyond the shadow of its predecessor over time. Blizzard's genre-defining hero shooter has had a particularly strong showing in 2026, thanks to a large Overwatch rebranding effort that dropped the "2" from its title, added new heroes, and reworked its approach to seasonal content. So far, the strategy seems to have paid off, but that's not to say everything has always been easy for the series, and Kaplan has now offered a behind-the-scenes look at some of the conflict at Blizzard before the second Overwatch came out.
Blizzard's original breakthrough hero shooter returns to the throne as it officially surpasses its Marvel-themed competition.
In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Kaplan explained how a...
