Jeff Kaplan Doesn't Engage with Overwatch After Leaving Blizzard: 'I Literally Haven't Played Since April 2021'

Hero Shooter's Lead Director Is Now Working on a Western Game Called 'The Legend of California'

The original shooter hero director is now working on a western called The Legend of California

Jeff Kaplan Overwatch The Legend of California

Jeff Kaplan, once the face of Blizzard's Overwatch, hasn't helmed the champion shooter in over five years. The former game director left the company in 2021 for what he later described as "the biggest 'fuck you' moment" of his career, when an Activision Blizzard executive threatened to fire 1,000 people if Overwatch made a certain amount of money that year. Since then, Aaron Keller has stepped in as director and managed to right the ship despite a rough few years. Kaplan's take on how the game turned out What is it? Well, he's actually made a conscious effort to stay out of the game since he left, so he doesn't really know.

In a lengthy interview with GameSpot, Kaplan talked about his experience going independent with his new studio Kintsugiyama and working on the action western game The Legend of California. In the interview, GameSpot asks how his relationship with Overwatch has changed as he steps down from his directorial role, and he says he's content to remember Overwatch as it was in 2021 when he left. He cites his earlier departure from World of Warcraft as a learning experience that made leaving Overwatch easier, as he found it very difficult to cut ties with WoW because "it was part of who [he] was and how [he] identified."

I was more prepared for that with Overwatch. World of Warcraft was more painful for me than Overwatch. And with Overwatch, I had an almost clinical separation, knowing how WoW went. I literally haven't played this game since April 2021.

We had added the echo. He was the last hero. And this is my memory of Overwatch - how it was played in April 2021. I don't read subreddits for my own sanity. After saying goodbye to competitive Overwatch and the Overwatch Subreddit, I won't be going back and reading. I don't watch YouTube [movies]. I don't search my name in Overwatch. I don't search Overwatch. I'm just interrupting I'm actually telling all the algorithms, “Yeah, I'm not really into Overwatch anymore. I know you think I'm the Overwatch guy, but that's just not me anymore.

And I do this only for healthy separation. I have those moments, very emotional [moments], where sometimes I see a picture of BlizzCon 2014, where we introduced Overwatch. To this day, it's one of the most special days of my life, you know?

Watching Chris go out and announce it, and having to follow it up with him. How my team felt about it. I'm very proud of everything everyone at Blizzard, not just Team 4, did to make Overwatch a great game. Like SNFD or Story and Franchise Development, the cinematics group at Blizzard. [It's] the most talented cinematic ensemble in video game history.

Despite all this, Kaplan says he still has "a lot of pride" in directing the game and has the "highest respect" for his former colleagues. But then he draws comparisons to Uncle Rico's Napoleon Dynamite character, who still mourns the soccer career he never had and wistfully watches movies of soccer games in his youth.

"Well, there's that character, Uncle Rico, who says, 'I was good at football,' and he's always like watching old videotapes of himself," he explains. "I don't want to be Uncle Rico! Overwatch happened. I was a part of it. There's a group out there now, and Overwatch is about them now. Both the players and the developers, it's their Overwatch now. They make it, they own it, they play it. I'm into this new thing, and that's where I'm at in my life."

Since Kaplan left Blizzard in 2021, Overwatch has undergone many changes from the initial plan for it at Blizzcon 2019, when the company planned to make Overwatch 2 a PvE-based game with a campaign and replayable missions. The game dropped 2 from its title earlier this year after a software reboot that spawned a new storyline and a new focus on frequent story updates with cinematics, comics, and voice dramas.

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