Jeff Kaplan, the former public face and director of Overwatch at Blizzard, says he has not played the hero shooter since leaving the company in 2021. He has also deliberately avoided news, videos and online discussion about the game.
Kaplan’s departure followed what he later described as the biggest “fuck you” moment of his career. An Activision Blizzard executive had threatened to dismiss 1,000 employees if Overwatch failed to generate a particular amount of money that year. Aaron Keller subsequently took over as director and, after several difficult years, helped stabilise the game.
In a lengthy GameSpot interview, Kaplan discussed leaving Blizzard, establishing his independent studio Kintsugiyama and developing the western action game The Legend of California. He also explained why he has chosen to remember Overwatch as it was when he left.
Kaplan said his experience stepping away from World of Warcraft prepared him for a cleaner break from Overwatch. Leaving World of Warcraft had been especially painful because the game was closely tied to his identity, while his separation from Overwatch was more deliberate.
Why Kaplan avoids the modern game
I was more prepared for that with Overwatch. World of Warcraft was more painful for me to leave than Overwatch was. And with Overwatch, I had a very almost clinical separation, knowing how the WoW thing had gone. I’ve literally not played the game since April 2021.
We had added Echo. She was the last hero. And that’s my memory of Overwatch—how it played in April of 2021. I don’t, for my own psyche, read the subreddits. After I said my goodbye to competitive Overwatch and the Overwatch subreddit, I never go back and read. I don’t watch YouTube videos, search for my name in Overwatch or search for Overwatch.
Kaplan said he has also instructed recommendation algorithms that he is no longer interested in Overwatch, despite their continuing association between him and the game. He views that distance as a healthy boundary.
Even so, memories of the game’s announcement can still be highly emotional. Kaplan recalled BlizzCon 2014, when Chris announced Overwatch and Kaplan followed him on stage. He described that day as one of the most special of his life and expressed immense pride in everyone at Blizzard who helped make the game, including Team 4, Story and Franchise Development, and the company’s cinematics group.
A game that belongs to its current team
Kaplan retains “so much pride” in having helped lead Overwatch and continues to hold his former colleagues in the highest regard. However, he does not want to remain fixated on the game’s past.
Using Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite as a comparison, Kaplan said he does not want to become someone constantly replaying the highlights of an earlier achievement. Overwatch happened, he said, and the players and developers working on it now have made it their own. Kaplan’s attention is instead on his new project and the next stage of his career.
The game has changed considerably since his 2021 departure. Blizzard’s 2019 plan presented Overwatch 2 as a primarily player-versus-environment experience built around a campaign and replayable missions. The project later moved away from that original blueprint.
Earlier this year, the game also dropped the “2” from its name following a soft reboot. Its new direction includes a fresh storyline and more regular story material delivered through cinematics, comics and audio dramas.
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