Jeff Kaplan Says Profit Pressure and Overwatch League Drove His Exit

Jeff Kaplan, a 19-year Blizzard veteran who left the company in 2021, says corporate mismanagement and mounting profit pressure pushed him to resign. He had been Overwatch's director and departed two years before the sequel shipped. Kaplan blamed the company's focus on competitive esports for diverting the team's time and resources from post-launch content.

"Where it got away from us is that there was a lot of excitement about Overwatch League, like too much," he told Lex Fridman, adding that executives "were pretty much selling the Brooklyn Bridge" about the league’s potential. The franchise system became a "house of cards" that failed to deliver promised returns.

When revenues didn’t match expectations, the company pushed for in-game microtransactions to boost esports income, Kaplan said, shifting resources away from new content and an early plan to build a large PvE component alongside PvP for the sequel. The original game made $1 billion in its first year, and pressure to chase even higher recurring revenue intensified.

jeff kaplan, blizzard, overwatch, overwatch league, esports, microtransactions, pve, pvp, profit pressure, corporate mismanagement