Overview
- Kaplan publicly restated harsh criticism of Blizzard leadership, saying executives mishandled the Overwatch 2 announcement and calling them “fucking idiots.”
- He said the company ordered the Overwatch team to stop creating new heroes for the original game so staff had to work on Overwatch 2, a move he links to a multi-year content drought.
- Kaplan described a long pattern of conflict with bosses and said he left Blizzard in 2021 after losing creative control and after an executive threatened large-scale layoffs tied to the game’s performance.
- Overwatch later launched in 2022 without many of the BlizzCon 2019 promises, Blizzard removed the “2” from the title, and the game began a 2026 recovery with new heroes and a fresh narrative arc.
- Kaplan now leads indie studio Kintsugiyama and is developing The Legend of California, which the team is aiming to release in early access in 2027.