In a recent interview with Gaming World Interviews, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan talked about his days at Blizzard and touched upon a sensitive topic – Overwatch 2. Starting with the game announcement at BlizzCon 2019, it was a series of questionable decisions on Blizzard’s part.

First, it was announced along with Diablo IV, making it impossible for either title to have its special moment. Kaplan said the newly appointed executives had a lot to prove, and by revealing two major titles at once, they wanted to show Blizzard "still had it."

Jeff Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002, starting as a designer for World of Warcraft and later becoming game director of the franchise. In 2014, he was appointed the game director of Overwatch, which quickly became Blizzard's universally acclaimed title with a massive player base. In 2018, however, leadership started to shift as Activision and Blizzard executives began to push their ideas on where the game had to go. 

Overwatch 2 ended up being a bit of a mess, full of unfulfilled promises. Initially, the number 2 in the title signified the beginning of a new chapter for the Overwatch franchise. At BlizzCon 2019, the developers promised a full PvE experience in the new game, which never happened. First, it was scaled back, and later, Blizzard canceled it entirely. As Kaplan mentioned, it was clear that Blizzard's plans for the second installment were vague, and the project was being jeopardized.

While players still love Overwatch, the whole second installment promise ended up vanishing into nowhere. Essentially, the only major differences between Overwatch 1 and 2 were the switch to 5v5 play, the server change, and the introduction of new heroes. As a result, earlier this year Blizzard finally removed the '2' from the title, changing it to just Overwatch.

If you want to learn more about what Blizzard did to Overwatch and why Jeff Kaplan left after over 15 years at the studio, you can watch the full interview here. Now, Kaplan has his own independent game studio, Kintsugiyama, which is currently working on The Legend of California, an open-world action-survival shooter. You can join the playtest on Steam. 

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