From the failure “Titan” comes Overwatch and a hype is created. How did Blizzard achieve this?
Two Games Through the Ages
Yesterday, on December 28, 2015, the Los Angeles Times published an extensive article about “Titan” and “Overwatch”, compiling numerous pieces of information. The Times focused mainly on how Blizzard dealt with the failure of Titan and how the new project Overwatch was able to emerge from it, which players worldwide are now eagerly anticipating.
Like a Phoenix from the Ashes
It is rare for a game studio to mercilessly bury a truly big project. Nevertheless, that is precisely what happened to Blizzard’s “Titan”, which was in development for several years, until the developers concluded: There is nothing, it is not fun.
For Blizzard, it was the better option to discontinue Titan and write off the millions invested rather than risk a loss of reputation from a game that is not fun: Thus, they buried Titan. Normally, the responsible person is held accountable for the disaster – not so in the case of Game Director Jeff Kaplan. He was neither fired nor removed from his position, but was assigned to a new project in the same position: Overwatch.
When Kaplan had to sell his idea to Activision boss Kotick, he was worried that Kotick would be less interested in creativity and more in hard numbers. However, during the presentation, Kotick immediately fell in love with the character designs, especially Torbjörn captivated him. Since that first conversation, Kotick has become an advocate for the game and even traveled to Blizzard in Irvine to play it.
With the new project, several things also changed:
- During Titan’s peak popularity of WoW, there was confidence, even arrogance, but with Overwatch, humility and modesty returned.
- Where there were 150 employees for Titan, the Overwatch team was shrunk to 80. The aim was to minimize bureaucracy and maximize the creativity of the individual. Blizzard had already proven that even small games can achieve great success with Hearthstone – a large quantity is not always necessary.
- Additionally, they tossed out the rules that ultimately crippled Titan. There were simply too many rules and constraints, such as the prohibition of flying cars. For Overwatch, there is only one rule: Every car must fly (i.e., no rules anymore).
What is particularly notable is how Overwatch is handled by the developers. All employees meet three times a week to discuss the latest tasks and to advance the common vision of the game. Even twice a day, they play to identify bugs and design missteps early on – one could say that at Blizzard, there is basically a LAN party going on continuously.
Although there were numerous speculations about Titan and anticipation among some fans was high, Overwatch managed to excite entire crowds directly with its announcement at BlizzCon. Although there are no official figures for pre-orders yet, there is no doubt that Overwatch will strike like a bomb.
Mein-MMO says: Although the story surrounding Overwatch sounds a bit like a fairy tale at the LA Times, at least some aspects of it cannot be denied. Only a few companies would likely recover from the cancellation of a large project like Titan. This is, of course, not least due to the fact that Blizzard has been around for over 22 years and has built up corresponding financial reserves.
Almost any other game studio would likely crumble under the failure of such a large project. However, this security also allows Blizzard to deliver high-quality games. Unlike many “released to the customer” titles, Blizzard products are always incredibly polished – a rarity in today’s market.
