The team from Overwatch is not accountable to any Blizzard boss in its actions. But is this all true?
When thinking about the video game industry, strange ideas often come to mind. Somewhere there is a big boss overlooking everything, swimming like Scrooge in his money vault and making his little developer slaves toil for him.
The boss wants to see profits, and all goals must be subordinate to that.
The team from Overwatch seems to be somewhat different, at least if we believe the words of Game Director Jeff Kaplan. He explained in a lengthy post on the official forum what the development team looks like and how they proceed.
The nearly 100 developers see themselves as artists and craftsmen. They try to avoid the feeling of being “cogs in a big machine.” There is not one person or selected individuals making decisions about what the team does. It is all a huge collaborative effort where the thoughts and wishes of the entire team come into play.
“We are not the peons of some visionary who simply implements his wishes – and we are certainly not bound to any corporate bosses telling us what to do or not do.”
The more than 100 developers share a common wish and see themselves almost as a kind of family. They have put their heart and soul into the game together, risking their names and careers to create something “truly special.”
The Overwatch team cannot simply be “infinitely expanded”
The high, self-imposed standards are also a reason why the team cannot simply be expanded to produce updates and patches faster. The team has been built around the people who they believe are the best developers in the entire industry. That is precisely why they cannot simply increase the number of employees to increase the pace of releases.
Kaplan also mentioned that the Overwatch team is far more critical of itself than a large part of the community. You will never find an employee claiming that Overwatch is ever perfect.
Kaplan emphasized that Overwatch means much more than just “work” for all employees:
“Since the day of release, we have only increased our efforts. Overwatch is a 24/7 matter for us. Overwatch does not stop for us when it’s 5 PM on a Friday. Overwatch does not stop for us when our children have birthdays.”
