Blizzard Entertainment Vice President and Director of Overwatch Jeff Kaplan has announced that he will be leaving the company after 19 years.
Jeff Kaplan started his career with Blizzard all the way back in 2002 with World Of Warcraft, where he climbed his way up to being the game’s director. More recently though, the franchise that made him a household name to gamers has been Overwatch, which he is largely credited for creating.
In a statement released on the Overwatch section of the official Blizzard website, Jeff Kaplan said
“I am 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. I 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.”
-Jeff Kaplan, Former Overwatch Director & VP of Blizzard Entertainment
In terms of what’s next for Overwatch, co-founder Aaron Keller will be stepping in to take over as director. In a statement on the same page from the website, Aaron said “Jeff’s been a great leader, mentor, and friend, and he knows how much we’re going to miss him. I’ve been lucky to work alongside him and the rest of the Overwatch team for many years in building something that continues to inspire people all around the world, and I’m honoured to carry the torch forward”.
Aaron Keller also gave an update as to the development of Overwatch 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the series. “Speaking of Overwatch 2, development is continuing at a good pace. We have an exceptional vision we’re executing on, the reaction from many of you to the updates we shared at BlizzConline thrilled us, and we have exciting reveals planned for this year and beyond as we ramp to launch. We’ll be sharing more frequent updates about Overwatch 2 progress and new features in the live game with you all very soon”.
Still no word on when ‘soon’ will be for more news on Overwatch 2, but it is also the time of year when announcements begin to ramp up, and with a virtual E3 on the horizon it is possible that ‘soon’ is even closer than we think. For more of the latest from Blizzard, check out why we’re excited about Diablo 2: Resurrected.
