Regards, Overwatch Community,
I’m leaving Blizzard Entertainment after 19 amazing years.
It was truly the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to create worlds and heroes for such a passionate audience. I want to express my deep appreciation to everyone at Blizzard who supported our games, game teams and players. But I want to thank especially the developers of wonderful games who participated in the journey of creation with me.
Never accept the world as it seems. Always dare to see her for what she could be. I hope you do the same.
GG,
Jeffrey Kaplan
Development for Overwatch 2 will continue with assistant game developer Aaron Keller taking over as the new director of the sequel. Keller previously worked with Kaplan on World of Warcraft.
“Jeff has been a great leader, mentor and friend and he knows how much we will miss him,” Keller wrote in a letter to the community. “I’ve been fortunate to work with him and the rest of the Overwatch team for many years on building something to inspire people around the world, and I’m honored to take the torch forward.”
Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002, where he began as a designer on World of Warcraft, developing quests for the future MMORPG. He was eventually credited as the WoW Game Director. In 2009, Kaplan led an unannounced Blizzard project called Titan, a first-person shooter game.
Unfortunately, Titan never reunited and was officially canceled in 2014. However, Kaplan and members of the Titan team took ideas from the game and redesigned them into a team-based hero shooter now known as Overwatch.
Overwatch has been incredibly successful since its launch. With over 50 million players and numerous Game of the Year awards, Overwatch has helped revive the hero-shooter genre. Overwatch has also spawned its own dedicated esports series, the Overwatch League, which has led teams from the city that reflect traditional sports leagues.Blizzard is also developing the sequel to Overwatch 2, a game designed to introduce a single-player component that highlights Overwatch’s beloved heroes. Although new PvP maps and heroes will still be released for both Overwatch 1 and 2.
As for the future of Overwatch 2, you can read Keller’s full letter below:
Regards, Overwatch Community,
Jeff was a great leader, mentor and friend and he knows how much we will miss him. I have been fortunate to work with him and the rest of the Overwatch team for many years to build something that will continue to inspire people around the world and I am honored to carry the torch forward.
I like Overwatch. From our first pieces of conceptual art, to the first maps we built, to the first time I managed to run like Tracer (who at that moment initially fired laser beams from her eyes), this game just clicked with me. I love his inspiring, hopeful, beautiful world that is worth fighting for. I like the characters – bigger than life, colorful, strong and global. And, above all, I like the fast and fluid game that requires teamwork, awareness of the situation and quick decision making.
I also admit that creating games at Blizzard has always been a group effort and never just one point of view. Together with the rest of the team, I feel happy that we have a deep bank of creative and development leaders, numerous Blizzard veteran artists and designers, and also extremely talented new blood – along with a lot of support throughout the company for the live game. and for Overwatch 2.
Speaking of Overwatch 2, development continues at a good pace. We have an exceptional vision to execute, the reaction of many of you to the updates we shared at BlizzConline delighted us and we have interesting revelations planned for this year and not only as we launch the launch. We will all be sharing more frequent updates on the progress of Overwatch 2 and the new features of the live game very soon.
Although I have no pretensions about filling Jeff’s shoes, I’m excited to take on the role of game director and continue to be part of a team that puts all his heart, talent and focus into the next iteration of Overwatch, and I am honored to continue to serve this incredible community.
-Aaron
Matt TM Kim is IGN’s news editor