The former Overwatch head breaks his silence. Now we know why Kaplan left – and how badly he was treated.
Most older Blizzard fans will likely still remember Jeff Kaplan. He was a long-time developer on World of Warcraft, but later also the Game Director of Overwatch. He gained cult status in the community for several reasons.
On the one hand, he was for many the “Papa Jeff” who always sat for hours by a fireplace during his Yule stream at Christmas – and did absolutely nothing. On the other hand, there were the incredibly funny parodies of his “Developer Updates”, which further cemented his place in the community’s hearts.
However, in 2021 he left Blizzard and thus also Overwatch. For a long time, there was speculation about what the reason was, and even longer Jeff Kaplan was silent. Now he has given an interview to PC Gamer magazine and talked about what was really going on with Overwatch and Blizzard.
The downfall of Overwatch
In the interview, Jeff Kaplan confirmed what most outsiders had long suspected. The downfall of Overwatch was likely due to the introduction of the Overwatch League. This was a league where investors could buy into with their teams.
The implied promise was that the league would generate profits that could even exceed the NFL. This promise was completely utopian and led to developers – who had nothing to do with the planning of the Overwatch League – having to allocate more and more resources towards the league in the end. Kaplan said:
And so all our plans [for Overwatch content] were basically thrown out the window. We weren’t working on new world events anymore, we weren’t really working on Overwatch 2 anymore, we were just treading water.
That the investors’ expectations for the league were not met only exacerbated the problem. Because now the developers had to allocate even more resources to create content for the league – such as skins for teams, new mechanics like a spectator camera, and so on.
More and more resources were spent on the league and not on what made Overwatch so successful in its early years: consistent, new game content.
Blunt threats from the boss
Perhaps the most significant experience for Jeff Kaplan was a conversation he had with a CFO of Blizzard. He was summoned to the CFO’s office and told to take a seat.
He mentioned a date that was in 2020 and then extended it to 2021. He said: ‘Overwatch must at least make this much in 2020 and every subsequent year the sum X.’ And then he added: ‘If you do not reach this amount, we will lay off 1,000 people and that will be your fault.’ And that was the biggest ‘F-you’ moment I’ve ever had in my career, it felt surreal to be in that position.
Or, to put it directly: If Overwatch did not earn a certain sum X, then 1,000 people would have to be laid off, and that would be – from the CFO’s perspective – solely Jeff Kaplan’s fault.
As someone who has worked on a lot of games, created many games, you come into meetings like this, and there are people saying ‘Fortnite has 1,400 people working on it. So if we just hire 1,400 people and make [Overwatch] Free2Play, then we will also make that much money, right?‘
I had thought I would never work for another employer than Blizzard, I loved it, it was a part of who I was and I literally thought I would retire from this company. I never thought that day would come – but it did. Fortunately for Blizzard, that CFO is no longer there.
We know the result – after Jeff Kaplan’s departure, the very expensive Overwatch League was shut down in 2023.
What happened to Overwatch next?
After Kaplan’s departure, Overwatch noticeably fell apart. Overwatch 2 was eventually released after many months of stagnation in Overwatch 1, but the biggest promise, a PvE campaign, was postponed indefinitely and ultimately completely broken.
Overwatch’s reputation was ruined, along with unpopular changes, such as the switch from a 6v6 to a 5v5 system, the successor was a disaster and generated negative headlines endlessly. It took years for Overwatch 2 to recover – it only really succeeded last year.
Currently, Overwatch (they have removed the ‘2’ from the name) is doing fairly well. Although the PvE mode was never delivered, the developers have become quite good at satisfying the fans. Especially the “Stadium” game mode has brought a whole new way to play Overwatch. But, even though this is good news, one can’t help but wonder where Overwatch could be today if Jeff Kaplan hadn’t been treated so unbelievably poorly.
