While a variety of factors contributed to his decision to leave, a major one was how the now-defunct esports league for Overwatch, dubbed Overwatch League, had massive expectations placed on it. He noted that its potential success got “overmarketed” to the people who would be paying to field teams for the event, with some claiming that Overwatch League would end up becoming even bigger than the NFL.

This led to a lot of commitments being made, which in turn would get “billionaire investors” involved, interfering with the ongoing development work on Overwatch. “And so all your plans [for Overwatch content] at that point kinda go out the window,” he said. “You’re not working on new world events, you’re not focused on Overwatch 2, you’re just treading water.” Ultimately, the entirety of the Overwatch League essentially became an attempt to “let’s make lots of money really fast,” according to Kaplan.

“Originally the business model was going to be that they [Overwatch League] were going to do in-person events, and there’s going to be big ticket sales and merch and all of that,” he continued. “I think, really quickly, everybody learned we can’t do in-game events when we have a London team and a Shanghai team… like, how does this work? So that fell apart super quickly. The merch was good but it wasn’t going to be making NFL money, whatever insanity people thought that was going to be.”

“So everybody [the investors] quickly defaulted back to, ‘hey, didn’t Overwatch make 500 million dollars just in the live game last year?’ What can we sell, and what can you give us? That pressure comes onto the [dev] team, and [add to that] the pressure to ship Overwatch 2, and then all the care and love that we had for the live game and the live service—like let’s make events, new heroes, new maps—we’re losing all these resources.”

Kaplan noted that he, along with product director Ray Gresko, felt more in control of Overwatch as a whole in its early years, before Overwatch League happened, which he said “ended up being an albatross.” Eventually, however, Kaplan would be driven to resign from the company after one particular meeting with the at-the-time CFO (chief financial officer) of Activision Blizzard. In this meeting, he was given specific revenue targets for Overwatch, along with targets for ongoing revenue. Failure to meet these targets would result in lay-offs for 1,000 employees.

“What ultimately broke me and my Blizzard career was I got called into the CFO’s office and he sits me down and he says—he gives me a date which at the time was 2020 and was going to slip to 2021, but at the time it was 2020—and he said: ‘Overwatch has to make [redacted] in 2020, and then every year after that it needs a recurring revenue of [redacted]’ and then he says to me ‘if it doesn’t do [redacted] we’re going to lay off 1,000 people, and that’s going to be on you.’ And that was the biggest f*** you moment I’ve had in my career, it felt surreal to be in that condition.”

“As someone who’s worked on a lot of games, made a lot of games, you get in these meetings where they’re like ‘Fortnite has 1400 people working on it, so if we just hire 1400 people and make it free-to-play, we’ll make that money, right?’ I had believed that I would never work in any place but Blizzard, I loved it, it was a part of who I was, and I thought that I was a part of it. And I literally thought I’d retire from the place. I never thought the day would come, but that was it. Luckily for Blizzard, that CFO is no longer there.”

While Kaplan would leave the company in 2021, Overwatch 2 would eventually come out as a free-to-play game in its Early Access form in 2022, before getting an official launch in 2023. The free-to-play competitive hero shooter is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. More recently, Blizzard decided to remove the “2” from the title and just call it Overwatch.

“For 35 years, Blizzard has been shaped by the worlds we build and the players who bring them to life. You’ve fought through World of Warcraft, battled in Diablo, played your cards in Hearthstone, and held the line in Overwatch. We’ve come a long way together. And now, the next chapter begins.

“Over the next few weeks, each world will showcase what comes next. If these games mean something to you, we’d love to see you there. These aren’t updates in isolation. They’re part of where Blizzard is heading—together with the players who’ve been here all along.”

It kicks off on January 29th at 9 AM PT with World of Warcraft’s State of Azeroth, followed by an Overwatch Spotlight on February 4th at 10 AM PT. Hearthstone is next on February 9th at 9:30 AM PT, and the Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight wraps things up on February 11th at 2 PM PT.

Regarding this series of reveals, Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries said, “Our extraordinarily talented teams have assembled a stellar line-up for our players across our universes. This major showcase event comes at a significant moment in time as we reflect on three and a half decades of Blizzard history and our big ambitions for the future. This is only the start of what we’ll share around our games this year, and we can’t wait to bring it to life.”

We already know about what’s coming to some of the above games, from the new Midnight expansion for World of Warcraft to Diablo 4’s Lord of Hatred. However, based on the trailer’s ending image, Blizzard could have something in store for StarCraft as well. A teaser for the shooter rumored back in 2024? Maybe not in the coming weeks, but a reveal at some point this year, even before BlizzCon, is certainly possible.

As for Overwatch, it wouldn’t be surprising to see its mobile version, reportedly developed by Nexon, receive an announcement. We may also hear about the “huge” something that director Aaron Keller teased for Overwatch 2 to start the year.

When donning the mask of another hero, you gain specific boons, like Orisa’s Javelin, leaving a Sojourn-like Disruption Field, or Winston using Tracer’s Rewind. Even better is that equipping specific masks to “lore-linked” heroes can result in that classic-and-not-all-sobering-reminder-of-no-Hero-Mode scene of Reinhardt and Brigitte locking their shields together.

Other content in the season includes the return of Junkenstein’s Revenge and Wrath of the Bride. Stadium also gets three new heroes – Torbjörn, Hazard, and Sojourn Fight – and Busan’s Sanctuary Control as a new map. There are also Gadgets, single-use items which turn the tables, from removing debuffs with Kitsune Charm to Jet Skates for escaping and “ghosting” opponents.

A new Battle Pass is also coming alongside a Mythic Skin for Lifeweaver. Stay tuned for more details on the season when it goes live.

“At the time, we weren’t sure if we were ready to commit to this annual cadence since it was untested for us,” said Keller in a new Director’s Take. “We worried that making changes to the core game could turn people away from it. Fortunately, you’ve reacted pretty positively, so we made plans to do the same thing this year with the release of Perks in Season 15.

“When I look back at the history of our releases in Overwatch, I think we’ve been too conservative. As we release more game-defining features, it seems to increase your excitement for the future of the game. It does the same for us! Coming away from that lesson, I can now say that we’re happily pursuing this cadence as the general direction for the ‘Overwatch year.'”

Keller even confirmed that next year would kick off with “something huge that changes the way people think about playing the game and I think we’re getting comfortable making these bigger and bigger each year. We also want to follow that excitement up with a mid-year season that doubles down on those features and emphasizes improvements to existing gameplay elements.”

What this could be is anyone’s guess – a revival of the cancelled PvE Hero Missions seems unlikely, but Keller has talked about Overwatch “firing on all cylinders” when it returns to the world and lore. Potential new story missions would be interesting, even if Invasion pretty much came and went.

Regardless, stay tuned for updates. Overwatch 2: Season 18 is live and adds a new Support hero, Wuyang, who uses water to heal allies and knock back foes. It also introduced Drafts, new heroes, and maps like Route 66 and London to Stadium alongside 60 new Perks.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Keeper, Grounded 2, and the ROG Xbox Ally (which will allegedly receive a release date) make up day one, as previously announced. However, you can also look forward to Cronos: The New Dawn, Hotel Barcelona, Invincible VS, World of Warcraft: Midnight, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Dying Light: The Beast, Starsand Island, PowerWash Simulator 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, Outbound, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants.

Day 2 is also just as packed. Previously confirmed titles include The Outer Worlds 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Overwatch 2, but Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Jurassic World Evolution 3, FragPunk, Mistfall Hunter, At Fate’s End and Age of Empires 4 are also present. Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice, Silent Hill f, LEGO Voyagers, and High on Life 2 will also appear. If that wasn’t enough, you can expect to see Silent Hill f and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater in action.

Before all this unfolds, Gamescom Opening Night Live will take place on August 19th at 11 AM PDT and promises its own stacked lineup. Then there’s Future Games Show on August 20th, featuring Phantom Blade Zero and Little Nightmares 3. Stay tuned for live coverage throughout all this.

From Tracer’s Gelfire Pros to Mei’s Super Soaker XP100, there’s quite the array of choice (and yes, Soldier 76 gets a NERF gun as well). The only Legendary skin available is for Cassidy, turning his Flashbang into a Vortex Football. A new limited-time mode, NERF or Nothin’, is also available, with players swapping to random heroes with each kill.

First to 20 eliminations wins, but the twist is that you’ll switch after dying three times, and none of the heroes will repeat. Everyone also has massive cooldown reduction, and some Ultimate charge carries over when changing heroes. Those who complete the event’s challenges by August 18th will earn Battle Pass XP, a spray, player icon, the Gelfire Pro skin, and a weapon charm.

While previous collaborations have focused on skins for characters, this one could focus primarily on weapon skins. There have been more Mythic skins over the past several seasons, primarily for Reaper, Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Mercy, Ana, Ashe and Widowmaker. As such, they’re prime candidates for the new NERF skins.

Overwatch 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It’s had a resurgence of sorts following the launch of Stadium in Season 16, and Blizzard has recently added Zenyatta, Sigma, and Junkrat in Season 17.

As for later in the season, a limited-time trial will become available for the next hero, Wuyang. With Overwatch 2 slated to appear at Gamescom during the Xbox broadcast, perhaps we’ll receive a new trailer. Time will tell, so stay tuned.

In the interview, Keller said that “one of the things we hear our players talk about a lot online is it kinda feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore.” He went on to talk about how the Overwatch team “used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays.”

For context, the large majority of the story in Overwatch was told through the release of animated shorts that focused on a few characters at a time, giving us a sense of an overarching story happening in the background. While multiplayer shooters don’t really need much of a story, the shorts in Overwatch served as a way to introduce new characters to the game without making them feel out of place. The characters of Overwatch also got incredibly popular with its fan base thanks to these shorts.

Further in the conversation, Keller also spoke about how narrative plans for Overwatch 2 fell through because of the originally planned PvE co-op mode that was going to arrive at launch was ultimately cancelled. “We did have a big plan to go after story in the game, that was the PvE with the campaign… that didn’t work out,” he said.

Ultimately, Keller believes that the universe and characters of Overwatch are its “best parts”, and that Blizzard can only really call it a comeback once it gets back to continuing the game’s main narrative beats.

“So there was kind of a reset moment for us when that happened,” Keller said, about the PvE campaign getting cancelled.

“We would like to get back to it. One of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and characters,” he continued. “For me, personally, for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of those [shorts] come back.”

Overwatch 2 is currently getting ready to kick off its next season on June 24. Dubbed Season 17: Powered Up!, the game will be getting quite a few new features, including additional heroes in Stadium. The update also brings with it a new Mythic Weapon Skin for Reaper, and a new Mythic Skin for D.Va. As for seasonal content, Overwatch 2’s next season will also bring a limited-time 8-bit mode, as well as additional maps for Stadium. Players will also be able to share builds with each other thanks to the Stadium Forge tools.

Overwatch 2 is available as a free-to-play game on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with cross-play across all platforms.

Overwatch 2

The original Overwatch was a runaway success that garnered a sizeable player base and many awards, and many fans were understandably excited about the sequel. Overwatch 2’s announcement sparked excitement with promises of expanded PvE and a broader scope, but what we got in reality was a shooter that lost focus of what made it so special in the first place. The magic of Overwatch’s PvE was gone, and the expanded PvP options felt shallow and generic.

The new Mythic skin is for D.Va, while Reaper gets a new Mythic Weapon Skin. New skins channelling the fictitious Overwatch Academy and 8-bit aesthetic will also be available (alongside a limited-time 8-bit mode). Esperança and Samoa will be available as new maps for Stadium, while Zenyatta, Sigma, and Junkrat are playable.

But best of all, you can finally save and share builds with the new Stadium Forge tools. No longer will you have to pick each perk every time. You can also look forward to Aatlis, a new Flashpoint map; Quick Play and Competitive map voting; and revamped versions of New Junk City and Survasa.

Head here for more details. Overwatch 2 is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.