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.

Granted, its overall rating is still “Mostly Negative,” but recent reviews have been trending more towards “Mixed,” so…progress? Regardless, enthusiasm for the new heroes is pretty strong with Jetpack Cat, Domina and Emre in particular emerging as favorites. Mizuki and Anran aren’t quite there, though it may be due to the previous three being over-tuned.

The other big new feature with Reign of Talon: Season 1 is the addition of Conquest. Following the latest cinematic short, which sees Vendetta taking over as the leader of Talon, players can effectively choose sides in the new conflict. The good news is that you won’t have to stick with either side, switching as necessary and netting rewards as a double agent.

Of course, there’s also a new Battle Pass, including a new Mythic Mercy skin and Mythic Weapon skin for Juno. A limited-time collaboration with Hello Kitty and Friends is also live, offering even more cosmetics to spend on.

Overwatch is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version due this Spring.

However, given the amount of time and marketing that went into the name change, you have to wonder if this isn’t the development team admitting to failure. Far from it, at least according to live service head Walter Kong during a press conference that Eurogamer attended.

“What would I change if we could go back? Probably not call it Overwatch 2. But when I look back at that period, I do think that it was a positive period for us, because we made an important transition. We made a transition to an ongoing live game, and that wasn’t easy. It was really, really hard.

“It was a necessary period of challenge that we had to get through to get to where we are today. I don’t think we could jump straight here. Just thinking back to what we experienced during those years makes me feel a bit exhausted, but it is what’s allowed us to take Overwatch into the future.”

For game director Aaron Keller, it’s a promise to players that Overwatch begins and ends with the current title, calling it a “forever game.” “From our players’ point of view, they’ll tell us, ‘Hey, Overwatch is in the best state it’s ever been in.’ And a lot of times we even hear like, ‘Overwatch has finally earned the two.’ So I don’t think this is us trying to admit there was a failure here, especially when we start hearing from the community that we’ve earned it.

“But for us, what this is saying is that because Overwatch is this forever game, we don’t want our players worrying about when it’s going to get replaced by Overwatch 3.”

Of course, never say never about a three-quel – even Keller admitted that, “Never is a big word to say.” However, the “intention is to continue supporting this game, this competitive hero-based, team-based shooter, for as far into the future as our players will continue playing.”

Overwatch’s Reign of Talon: Season 1 begins on February 10th. Alongside the new heroes, new Mythic Skins for Mei and Mercy will arrive. Stadium is being updated with a Hero Builder for more seamless customization among new players, and the menus are receiving a significant overhaul.

Each new season going forward will add a new hero and several new core maps. If that wasn’t enough, the hero shooter is also coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this Spring.

At the center of it all is Vendetta, a high-damaging character who made quite the splash late last year, and takes control of Talon in an explosive animated short that gives us a look into her backstory and motivations. The video showcases her growing reputation within their ranks and the credible threat that she poses to their order before she storms in and takes on Doomfist in a fight to the death.

Vendetta brings all of her mobility and finesse to the battle, and Doomfist is summarily dispatched before she confidently assumes control of Talon and rather ominously declares a plan for world domination. That’s quite a start to the new story-driven approach that Blizzard is now taking in its effort to revamp its popular title. The first season of this new story is slated for February 10 and brings five new heroes to the fray.

With five more seasons already scheduled for the rest of the year, each of which is bringing a new hero to the game’s expansive roster, it looks like 2026 has a lot of reasons for Overwatch fans to be excited, and keep their skills as sharp as they can manage.

This massive revamp also marks a change to the studio’s hero release strategy with 10 new additions yearly. Season 1’s line-up includes Domina, a new Tank; Emre, a Damage dealer; Anran, another Damage dealer and Wuyang’s sister; Support hero Mizuki; and, as requested for so long, Jetpack Cat. Hero categories are also being divided into different sub-roles, such as Bruiser Tanks who take less critical damage, Survivor Tanks who regenerate health with movement abilities, etc.

Anran will be available to try out on February 5th with a limited-time hero trial. Two core maps are also being added with the next season alongside Conquest, where players battle as part of Talon or Overwatch, earning rewards across multiple phases.

If all of this wasn’t enough, Blizzard is rebalancing perks, adding new voicelines, making it easier than ever to play Stadium with recommended builds, and completely overhauling the UI. Oh, and Nintendo Switch 2 support is also on the way this Spring. Interestingly, there’s even more in store this year, so stay tuned for further updates.

According to the report, Blizzard has been accepting bids from Korean development studios that could potentially use the StarCraft and Overwatch IPs. The licensing for both IPs are said to be a package deal, along with rights to publish and service the games in the Japanese and Korean markets.

It is worth noting that both StarCraft and Overwatch are quite popular IPs in Korea. StarCraft, especially, has been credited as being one of the games to essentially birth the market for eSports as we know it in this day, thanks to the Korean market accepting the game with open arms.

According to MTN, the competition for this bidding war has been fierce owing to the popularity of the StarCraft IP in Korea. The report notes, however, that any studio that takes on the IP would have to surpass StarCraft 2 in terms of gameplay to gain a foothold. The report also notes that StarCraft could potentially be adapted into a MOBA or card game, but such titles would suffer from not being able to make use of the StarCraft IP to its full extent.

As for Overwatch Mobile, according to the report, the fact that distribution rights would be limited to Korea and Japan has been a sticking point, with companies wanting global rights instead.

Blizzard has been largely quiet when it comes to StarCraft, since announcing back in 2020 that no more content would be developed for StarCraft 2. The last major release in the franchise was StarCraft: Remastered all the way back in 2017.

A rumour from September 2024 indicated that Blizzard has been quietly working on a new game in the StarCraft franchise. Rather than being an RTS follow-up to StarCraft 2, however, the rumour indicates that the game is instead a shooter. The project, stated at the time to be in its early stages of development, was being headed up by the team from the since-cancelled Odyssey project. Far Cry veteran developer Dan Hay is said to be heading up the development of this spinoff.

More recently, StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection have both been available to play on PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate since November last year. The multiplayer parts of StarCraft 2 is available as a free-to-play game through Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher.

Overwatch 2, on the other hand, is also available as a free-to-play title across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. For more details, check out the animated trailer released for Freja from back in March. Also check out details of Overwatch 2 Season 15.

In a new FAQ, the developer clarified that Overwatch: Classic isn’t a separate game. It will be available in the Events Hub and Arcade mode, with the 21 original heroes playable in their original forms. Mercy’s classic Resurrect? Bastion remaining stationary in turret mode? It’s all here.

The first few days lack any hero or role limits, after which single hero limits will be employed. Such is the commitment to the original experience that the original four roles (Defense, Offense, Tanks, and Supports) are present.

Of course, this isn’t exactly like the hero shooter’s 2016 launch. Though the original 12 maps are present, any reworks will still apply. You also can’t equip other skins besides the defaults, and features like loot boxes, the original Competitive Mode, etc, are absent.

Blizzard noted this to be the “first” Overwatch: Classic event, with others focusing on popular metas like triple-tank/triple-support and the Moth meta following Mercy’s first rework. Perhaps these subsequent versions will go live in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for updates on that in the meantime.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comes from Josef Fares, the mastermind behind popular co-op games like A Way Out and It Takes Two. The game tells a heartwarming story about two brothers working together through a vast world, and the mechanics do a good job of encouraging synergies between the player in new and interesting ways. Between this and the charming art style on offer, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons becomes a great game to play with a loved one.

“We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” said an Activision Blizzard spokesperson in a statement. “We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We are excited to share details with you all in the near future.”

The Overwatch League has seemingly faced quite a few problems since its original launch back in 2017, especially once lockdown restrictions came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in 2020, Blizzard had to cancel quite a few of its Overwatch League live events because of the lockdowns at the time.

Overwatch 2 has been going quite strong, despite a few criticisms here and there by the player base. More recently, Blizzard unveiled a new Hero, Mauga, slated for release on December 5. The studio also announced that the game will be getting a new PvP mode, as well as two new Heroes and a map in 2024.

Resident Evil Village

The Resident Evil series has seen its fair share of remakes in the form of the stellar Resident Evil 2 and the disappointing Resident Evil 3, but it has consistently delivered high-quality follow-ups. These include Resident Evil 7 and its follow-up Village, the latter of which represent the best of what the series offers. Resident Evil Village majestically swerves from one kind of horror to the next without any hiccups, and the action keeps pace with the changing scenery and shifting mechanics. The core gameplay of shooting down zombies is much faster than Resident Evil 7, but it retains the heft and groundedness of a survival horror game that comes together to make it one of the best in its class.