It felt surreal: Overwatch co-creator left after exec warned of 1,000 layoffs

Jeff Kaplan, the co-creator and former director of Overwatch, was a prominent public face for the game, frequently appearing at events and on streams. He left Activision Blizzard in 2021 and has since explained that his departure was not an early retirement.

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Kaplan said that after Overwatch launched in 2016 he "felt very in control of the Overwatch team and the direction of the game." That control began to erode as projects such as Overwatch 2 and The Overwatch League shifted the studio’s focus.

Kaplan says his breaking point came during a dramatic meeting with a former executive who allegedly told him he would be responsible for 1,000 layoffs if the shooter failed to meet financial targets. That exchange helped prompt his decision to leave.

Beloved by the community for nearly a decade, Kaplan’s public profile and the details he shared about internal tensions have shed new light on why he departed the company.

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