In a surprise announcement this morning, Jeff Kaplan, Game Director and known as the “face” of Overwatch, announced he is leaving Blizzard after a 20 year career.
Via a blog post on Play Overwatch, Kaplan announced his departure.
Iam leaving Blizzard Entertainment after 19 amazing years.
It was truly the honor of a lifetime to have the opportunity to create worlds and heroes for such a passionate audience.want to express my deep appreciation to everyone at blizzard who supported our games, our game teams and our players. But I want to say a special thanks to the wonderful game developers that shared in the journey of creation with me.
Never accept the world as it appears to be. Always dare to see it for what it could be. I hope you do the same.
Aaron Keller, a founding member of the Overwatch team, will replace Kaplan as the game’s director moving forward.
Our Take
This is an incredibly surprising announcement. With Overwatch 2 still in development, losing the face of the franchise who also happen to be the game’s director seems like a significant event. We’ll be interested to see in the future if there was more to this story.