Jeff Kaplan Leaving Blizzard - New Leadership for Overwatch

[Zenfoldor]

One more blizzard employee running to the on the nose Dreamhaven i imagine. In general its just another reminder this is a zombie develop puppeted by out of touch shareholder targeting techboomers under activision but it also probably aint doing any favours to dispelling the rumours Overwatch 2 is in a lot of trouble behind the scenes.

This is a big one.

I don't think we'll see a lot of damage control on this one. People know what this means, imo. Hard to marginalize it.

[aceperson]

anyone else getting anthem flashbacks? tons of senior devs leaving, the prior game wasn't that great, and naysayers thinking blizz can't do anything wrong. i'm certainly getting it.

[TwistedSkull]

Activision is a disease...

[Thrif]

Is it confirmed he's going to Dreamhaven? He was both a VP and game director at Blizzard, working on his own brainchild at that. It's hard to imagine him moving to another developer unless he can head up his own studio and projects.

Actually it's super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Doesn't really matter if you're a vp and game director if the company itself is nothing but a soulless moneyleeching husk of what it once was. People are leaving left and right, and most likely not to head up their own studios, just to studios worth working at.

[Nnyco]

Fuckin doomsayers in this thread, lol. I know losing jeff is bad since he was such a long member of blizzard but people make it sound like the world explodes.

[niztheundead87]

people are surprised that someone quits their job after 20 years

[Darkeon]

I am sure losing him will be similar to losing random employee #129. Or at least people will claim so.

[Ludek]

Wasn't the OW community wanting him to be replaced? Well they got what they wished for.

[dope_danny]

This is a big one.

I don't think we'll see a lot of damage control on this one. People know what this means, imo. Hard to marginalize it.

Well he didn't use the industry dogwhistle of "on to new adventures" to tell friends in the industry he was fired and needs a job quick as the terms usually used for so i imagine he has something lined up and if its anything else beyond Blizzard 2: The Do Over i will be shocked.

[uuuhname]

well what little hope I had for OW is pretty much evaporated. OW2 might as well come out as a Gacha game at this point.

[Raetary]

Wasn't the OW community wanting him to be replaced? Well they got what they wished for.

No, the community was very fond of him.

[Zenfoldor]

Well he didn't use the industry dogwhistle of "on to new adventures" to tell friends in the industry he was fired and needs a job quick as the terms usually used for so i imagine he has something lined up and if its anything else beyond Blizzard 2: The Do Over i will be shocked.

Wow that's interesting. I'll be looking for that "on to new adventures" line from now on, lol.

[Toppy]

people are surprised that someone quits their job after 20 years

In the middle of development of a major project that he heads*

Thats a god awful sign.

[socialmaker]

There is almost no original Blizzard talent left... only Activision lmao

[panda040]

God im excited for dreamhaven

[Low Hanging Fruit]

We need show call of the shillings to go off in here.. more than normal..

Perfectly normal.. happens every day.. people move on...

LOL

[Kiivar86]

Just want to point out that the twitter account pictured in the opening post is a fan account and not Kaplan's actual account (says as much in the bio of it).

[LionSinMaikeru]

people are surprised that someone quits their job after 20 years

You don't quit your job suddenly when you're in the middle of a huge project (I.E. creating a sequel to a billion dollar franchise) unless there's serious problems behind the scenes.

[StillMcfuu]

You don't quit your job suddenly when you're in the middle of a huge project (I.E. creating a sequel to a billion dollar franchise) unless there's serious problems behind the scenes.

Normally I would agree, and I actually agree in Jeff's case, but Blizzard always has big projects going on; there is never a time a person leaves when there isn't some behind the scenes project in the works.

[LionSinMaikeru]

Normally I would agree, and I actually agree in Jeff's case, but Blizzard always has big projects going on; there is never a time a person leaves when there isn't some behind the scenes project in the works.

I guess I should specify when you're the head developer. Haha.

Like I wouldn't even doomsay if he was leaving say, a few months after OW2 dropped. But the fact that he's leaving while they're in development + he was talking previously about his excitement for it...says a lot to me.