Michael Chu leaves Overwatch (and Blizzard)

[Tziva]

Haven't seen anyone else post this yet:
https://twitter.com/westofhouse/stat...42966846160897

His blog:
https://www.michael-chu.com/blog/twenty-years

It's a bummer; I liked him.

[Mirishka]

I wonder if he's going to work on Riot's Overwatch-type game. Quite a few Blizz employees quit and went to work there (Ghostcrawler, one of their lead art guys, etc).

[lollerlaban]

I wonder what the fuck he ever did for so many years

[Very Tired]

I wonder what the fuck he ever did for so many years

Yeah. Not to be disrespectful, but I'm honestly curious how being an Overwatch writer is a full time job. The team isn't exactly pumping out media.

[Timewalker]

I guess they found out they had a "Overwatch writer" on the payroll and realized that Overwatch has no story.

[dope_danny]

Another member of the "o-onwards to new adventures" crowd on twitter. Such a shame we wont get more stellar storylines like... and...

uh....

Gimme a minute, shit.

[Eapoe]

I love all the responses about Overwatch not having a story. They wrote nice stories with full cinematics to them. The team made comics based off of it. They have backstories for characters. They then write to make it coherent and consistent.
Now, I’m not saying it’s some amazing, deep writing in the game, but there is story there. The thing is, writing novels can take writers approximately 6 months to a year for one cohesive story, whereas Overwatch has multiple small ones that they then have to make sure work together and don’t contradict each other, all the while making cinematics. There’s also potential he writes multiple versions of each backstory that we never see, and the ones we do being revised multiple times during the animation process.
Add on that the stories we have gotten have all been really well done and tend to invoke emotional responses in the people watching them. Hell, the Reinhardt one actually had some YouTube personalities choke up and talk about how amazing it was, something you don’t get all the time.

[Flutterguy]

Depending on who replaces him this could be quite the monkeys paw. I wasn't impressed with his work.

[Verdugo]

I love all the responses about Overwatch not having a story. They wrote nice stories with full cinematics to them. The team made comics based off of it. They have backstories for characters. They then write to make it coherent and consistent.
Now, I’m not saying it’s some amazing, deep writing in the game, but there is story there. The thing is, writing novels can take writers approximately 6 months to a year for one cohesive story, whereas Overwatch has multiple small ones that they then have to make sure work together and don’t contradict each other, all the while making cinematics. There’s also potential he writes multiple versions of each backstory that we never see, and the ones we do being revised multiple times during the animation process.
Add on that the stories we have gotten have all been really well done and tend to invoke emotional responses in the people watching them. Hell, the Reinhardt one actually had some YouTube personalities choke up and talk about how amazing it was, something you don’t get all the time.

Yes we know Blizzard writers like to write oscar bait equivalents, but the substance is still zero.

[hulkgor]

Hell, the Reinhardt one actually had some YouTube personalities choke up and talk about how amazing it was

Oh wow, that's such high praise...

... wait, what?

[derpkitteh]

since he's not writing anymore, i wonder if pharmercy will become canon.

[Kathranis]

With OW2 and apparently an animated series now in development, both heavily narrative driven, I can only surmise that Chu either wasn't comfortable with the added responsibility (having originally signed on to a very different project with minimal focus on story), or they need someone with more experience in story and franchise development.

Otherwise it doesn't really make sense for the head writer to exit just as story is becoming super important. You'd think that would ne a dream come true... Unless he got a better job offer, but it's not like his work on Overwatch has that been impressive, and it sure as hell hasn't been prolific.

[The Butt Witch]

Overwatch has a story?

[Verdugo]

Overwatch has a story?

Just some oscar-baiting cinematics.

[ThatsOurEric]

Good riddance to him. 4 years with almost nothing to show for it.