'That Was the Biggest F*** You Moment I Had in My Career' — Jeff Kaplan, Former Boss of the Overwatch Team, Finally Reveals Why He Left Blizzard - IGN

Jeff Kaplan, the former boss of the Overwatch team, has finally revealed why he left Blizzard after nearly 20 years with the company, pinning the blame on extreme financial pressures on the game to deliver for Activision Blizzard. Kaplan announced his departure from Blizzard in August 2021, with the controversial Overwatch 2 still in development. Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002 where he started as a designer on World of Warcraft, developing quests for the then upcoming MMORPG. He eventually was credited as a game director on WoW. In 2009, Kaplan spearheaded an unannounced project at Blizzard called Titan, an ambitious new MMO that was eventually canceled in 2014 after tens of millions of dollars was spent on its development. Kaplan and members of the Titan team took ideas from the game and redesigned them into the team-based hero shooter now known as Overwatch, which went on to become incredibly successful. Now, five years after he left, Kaplan has returned to the public eye to announce his new game, The Legend of California, and to tell his side of the story. In a sweeping interview with Lex Fridman, Kaplan discussed his career so far, and as part of that opened up on why he left B