Current Events > Jeff Kaplan leaves Blizzard Entertainment

(+) Yeah! (+)

Oh shit.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Overwatch has been mediocre for a long time now

Has it though? Seems like its in a better state than launch when you had 6 player Bastion teams. Is it the games fault you got tired of it?

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Bummer but oh well. He always seemed like a private person and I got the sense that he didn't enjoy the spotlight as much as other people would.


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BeyondWalls posted...

Has it though? Seems like its in a better state than launch when you had 6 player Bastion teams. Is it the games fault you got tired of it?

Yeah Overwatch is definitely a better game now than it was at launch. Not even arguable

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BeyondWalls posted...

Seems like its in a better state than launch when you had 6 player Bastion teams.

Single player is still a crapshoot.

6 Bastion v 6, you can do 2 close range(Road Hogs), 2 long range characters (Pharah, Genji, ect), and then whatever 2 supports.

Edit:
BeyondWalls posted...

Is it the games fault you got tired of it?

https://youtu.be/z6zVEF3ndhs

BeyondWalls posted...

Has it though? Seems like its in a better state than launch when you had 6 player Bastion teams. Is it the games fault you got tired of it?

I think I had a lot more fun in FuckaroundWatch than ELOoverMetaWatch. And I knew that's be the case when the game released.

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The toxic wannabe pro-esports player community did more to ruin Overwatch than anything else by far.

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BeyondWalls posted...

Seems like its in a better state than launch when you had 6 player Bastion teams

lol the funny thing about that is that Kaplan was the guy who was adamantly against class limits. The community had to beg and plead to get that.

BeyondWalls posted...

Is it the games fault you got tired of it?

Since Blizzard's stupid decisions directly contributed to my enjoyment decreasing, yes.

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papa jeff, now who will i pray to to climb out of plat for good...

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Hmm, I wonder if thats why theres been such a lack of OW2 news

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Means nothing to me

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ButteryMales posted...

Single player is still a crapshoot.

6 Bastion v 6, you can do 2 close range(Road Hogs), 2 long range characters (Pharah, Genji, ect), and then whatever 2 supports.

Edit:
https://youtu.be/z6zVEF3ndhs

Brig only killed the game for sad Tracer and Genji mains. But unfortunately those are the most vocal whiners.

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thronedfire2 posted...

Brig only killed the game for sad Tracer and Genji mains.

hello bronze player

Jeff was beyond incompetent at his job since forever, but he was still the last bastion of resistance against the Activision money people. With is lacking of ability and unwillingness to bend a knee to Activision, this has been expected for awhile.


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I Like Toast posted...

facts never got in the way of a good story. Activision does nothing with blizzard, they run on their own and then share profits.

https://kotaku.com/with-activisions-influence-growing-blizzard-is-cutting-1831263741

Last month, a Kotaku investigation revealed that Blizzards staff have been told to reduce expenses while at the same time produce more games. There are likely several reasons for this shift in priorities, including a lack of consistent output, a weak year for Activision-Blizzard overall, and Activisions increasing influence on Blizzard, which has traditionally been an autonomous company but has been overseen by Activisions CEO, Bobby Kotick, since the two companies merged in 2008. That influence has grown this year in many ways both blatant and subtle.

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oh look speculation with no sources based on a "report" of speculation after diablo immortal, what a #shock

Some of those people also raised questions about Activisions influence on the beloved video game company. Activision merged with the publisher Vivendi (at the time, Blizzards holding company) to become Activision Blizzard in 2008, but over the past decade Blizzard has prided itself in remaining a separate entity. With its own management structure and its own campus in Irvine, California, Blizzard has always stood out from Activisions other divisions and subsidiaries. (Activision HQ is based about an hour northwest, in Santa Monica.) Rather than sticking to strict production cycles that result in, say, annual Call of Duty games for Activision, Blizzard has traditionally given its developers as much time as possible. Thats one of the reasons the company has been renowned for making some of the greatest games in the world.

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I Like Toast posted...

oh look speculation with no sources

For Novembers report, we talked to 11 current and former Blizzard employees. Since then, weve heard from even more current and former Blizzard staff about the companys cost-cutting measures and how theyve materialized. The Career Crossroads program is one example. Another, according to three Blizzard staff who all left recently, is a power shift that has seen the finance department cultivate influence that it had never had in the past.

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Lmao toast taking L after L

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I'm also going to point out that the statement that he's leaving is really odd. It's not written by Kaplan. The only thing directly from him is this 'personal note'

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.
gg,
jeffrey kaplan

Which honestly looks like a quick email he sent to his co-workers as he was packing up his desk.

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no not overwatch

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thronedfire2 posted...

Hmm, I wonder if thats why theres been such a lack of OW2 news

I'm convinced OW2 was always Activision hedging its bets against the international "lootboxes are gambling" legislation discussions. They announced OW2 right in the middle of all that and have said nothing since all that kind of died down. Why else would they make it completely backwards compatible with OW1 if not because it was really just "OW for countries that had banned lootboxes"?

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Blizzard tried to sell us Diablo for mobile and censored a player at a tournament because Blizzard values their relationship with (or, some would say, bootlicks for) China. As a casual thats all I know about this company lol

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Darmik posted...

For Novembers report, we talked to 11 current and former Blizzard employees. Since then, weve heard from even more current and former Blizzard staff about the companys cost-cutting measures and how theyve materialized. The Career Crossroads program is one example. Another, according to three Blizzard staff who all left recently, is a power shift that has seen the finance department cultivate influence that it had never had in the past.

ctrl + f activision not found

so in your mind activision just waited 10 years to do anything, just sitting their twiddling their thumbs and them diablo immortal made them go, woah hold up, we need to start getting involved now!

or

I Like Toast posted...

oh look speculation with no sources based on a "report" of speculation after diablo immortal, what a #shock

Some of those people also raised questions about Activisions influence on the beloved video game company. Activision merged with the publisher Vivendi (at the time, Blizzards holding company) to become Activision Blizzard in 2008, but over the past decade Blizzard has prided itself in remaining a separate entity. With its own management structure and its own campus in Irvine, California, Blizzard has always stood out from Activisions other divisions and subsidiaries. (Activision HQ is based about an hour northwest, in Santa Monica.) Rather than sticking to strict production cycles that result in, say, annual Call of Duty games for Activision, Blizzard has traditionally given its developers as much time as possible. Thats one of the reasons the company has been renowned for making some of the greatest games in the world.

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I Like Toast posted...

ctrl + f activision not found

so in your mind activision just waited 10 years to do anything, just sitting their twiddling their thumbs and them diablo immortal made them go, woah hold up, we need to start getting involved now!

Darmik posted...

Last month, a Kotaku investigation revealed that Blizzards staff have been told to reduce expenses while at the same time produce more games. There are likely several reasons for this shift in priorities, including a lack of consistent output, a weak year for Activision-Blizzard overall, and Activisions increasing influence on Blizzard, which has traditionally been an autonomous company but has been overseen by Activisions CEO, Bobby Kotick, since the two companies merged in 2008. That influence has grown this year in many ways both blatant and subtle.

Your Ctrl + F must be broken because it should come up with 11 hits on that article.


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what's the third word you bolded?

oh right
I Like Toast posted...

oh look speculation with no sources based on a "report" of speculation after diablo immortal, what a #shock

still waiting for you answer on why it took 10 years for "activision" to apparently make this change in 2018. weird how you don't want to support your speculation for some reason

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Both articles are written by the same person so no idea where you're getting 'based on' from and both articles have sources directly from within Blizzard.

Are you even reading them or do you only take the word of Activision PR?

I Like Toast posted...

still waiting for you answer on why it took 10 years for "activision" to apparently make this change in 2018. weird how you don't want to support your speculation for some reason

It's literally in the article.

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mech dragon posted...

Blizzard tried to sell us Diablo for mobile and censored a player at a tournament because Blizzard values their relationship with (or, some would say, bootlicks for) China. As a casual thats all I know about this company lol

the problem is that player broke the terms of his contract, and if they let one guy get away with it are they supposed to let every person on their streams talk about political stuff?

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DarkBuster22904 posted...

Bioware for me.

Fuck EA, man...

EA was on a downward spiral near the PS2/Xbox/GC era, when they started killing franchises.
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Hop103 posted...

EA was on a downward spiral near the PS2/Xbox/GC era, when they started killing franchises.

EA was dodgy before that. They made some awful licensed games on the PS1.

They were maybe okay in their first couple of years of existing but they got aggressive very quickly.

Pretty sure they entered the console industry by telling Sega that they don't need to pay them to put games on their console because they reverse engineered their carts.

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Remember when Jeff tried to delete all overwatch pron from the internet?


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Darmik posted...

Both articles are written by the same person so no idea where you're getting 'based on' from and both articles have sources directly from within Blizzard.

Find your quote saying activision. oh right you won't, because it doesn't exist.

Darmik posted...

It's literally in the article.

where it doesn't say because it's baseless speculation and just a lot of maybe, could be, this will give us views right since we're a trash clickbait website? but not surprising you couldn't answer 2 direct questions stated at you because the facts don't support your beliefs.


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Just checked, it looks like 3 major blizzard execs quit recently...holy shit

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I Like Toast posted...

Find your quote saying activision. oh right you won't, because it doesn't exist.

It's the headline of the article;
With Activision's Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs

I Like Toast posted...

where it doesn't say because it's baseless speculation and just a lot of maybe, could be, this will give us views right since we're a trash clickbait website? but not surprising you couldn't answer 2 direct questions stated at you because the facts don't support your beliefs.

Ok lets just assume that Kotaku is making stuff up. You've still got actual stuff that can't be made up like this.

Its a major cultural shift, one driven by top executives at the company including Armin Zerza, who was chief financial officer (CFO) at the studio before he became chief operating officer (COO) in late 2017. Under Zerza, Blizzard has brought in a number of business-minded employees both from Activision and the consulting company McKinsey, many of whom might have different priorities than longtime Blizzard staff or those with development backgrounds.

Earlier this year, new Blizzard CFO Amrita Ahuja, who also came over from Activision, told employees during an all-hands meeting that it was time to start reining in their spending. That was a common theme at many of Blizzards departments this year, according to those who were there. That speech from Amrita about cutting costs, that wasnt a one time thing, said one person who worked on a non-development team. We were told to cut costs on a monthly basis.

I should also point out that articles from Schreier about Blizzard consistently end up being true. Probably because he's not speculating with no information?
https://kotaku.com/sources-blizzard-cancels-starcraft-first-person-shoote-1835285125

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Darmik posted...

It's the headline of the article;

I Like Toast posted...

oh look speculation with no sources based on a "report" of speculation after diablo immortal, what a #shock

also literally lmao at thinking headlines are accurate

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Just want to get your perspective right here.

You think that Blizzard employees who have accurately leaked information on internal employee programs, cancelled and upcoming projects didn't say a single thing about Activision and Schreier made up the rest? To make Activision look bad I guess?

You believe that Activision having more influence over Blizzard is a preposterous thing that can't possibly be happening despite that several people have moved from Activision to Blizzard, that Blizzard have indeed started to focus on releasing more projects more often and that several top Blizzard people have since left the company? Despite that Bungie broke their contract with Activision over extremely similar demands?

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Darmik shut up and realize that valve is bad ok

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Darmik posted...

You think that Blizzard employees who have accurately leaked information on internal employee programs, cancelled and upcoming projects didn't say a single thing about Activision and Schreier made up the rest?

every single one of the quotes, doesn't say a thing about activision. Every single quote from ex-blizzard employees states activision doesn't get involved in blizzard's running.

you think that blizzard employees who actively talked to Jason and leaked information on internal employee programs just didn't want to say activision as unnamed sources? You think jason who when he knows something with confidence says it with confidence is suddenly going to start saying, maybe, could be, please click this click bait here because it says what you want to hear now plz and ty was afraid to run quotes that actually detailed how activision was controlling blizzard that's been contrast to every other news article and interview out there. that both your own articles discuss how blizzard operates independently and not at all like the rest of activision's studios. That activision 'took over' in 2018, but still couldn't figure out how to get Overwatch 2 out the door and just allowed blizzard to continue to operate like blizzard instead of an activision developer that's going to hit that fall deadline no matter what.

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repeat after me: AAA gaming is a disease

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PlsGodDontBanMe posted...

I feel like ILT is actually bobby kotick

because no one this dumb and naive still tries to defend activision blizzard and still denies activision has no pull over there.

its honestly embarrassing now. Toast has been doing this since Diablo 3s release

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Darmik posted...

EA was dodgy before that. They made some awful licensed games on the PS1.

They were maybe okay in their first couple of years of existing but they got aggressive very quickly.

Pretty sure they entered the console industry by telling Sega that they don't need to pay them to put games on their console because they reverse engineered their carts.

EA killed Westwood, fuck them.

I have never forgiven them.

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I Like Toast posted...

Every single quote from ex-blizzard employees states activision doesn't get involved in blizzard's running.

Until they started to?

This is literally the entire concept of the article and you're acting like it's not there. They're literally saying that people from finance were sitting in meetings all of a sudden and you're here acting like that's Blizzard being normal.

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people really still feed ILT in the year of our lord twenty twenty-one, huh

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Darmik posted...

Until they started to?

so post the quote.

or

I Like Toast posted...

you think that blizzard employees who actively talked to Jason and leaked information on internal employee programs just didn't want to say activision as unnamed sources?

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So basically you believe that Blizzard in 2018 just decided on their own accord to make a bigger deal about finances and brought in a bunch of people from Activision to oversee more of the company?

Earlier this year, new Blizzard CFO Amrita Ahuja, who also came over from Activision, told employees during an all-hands meeting that it was time to start reining in their spending. That was a common theme at many of Blizzards departments this year, according to those who were there. That speech from Amrita about cutting costs, that wasnt a one time thing, said one person who worked on a non-development team. We were told to cut costs on a monthly basis.

Here's a direct quote as well. Not that you'll actually accept it though.

Blizzard is a special place, said one former employee. A lot of people are worried about the future of Blizzardif the Activision method seeps in more, what thats going to become.

Even best case scenario you're still talking about a company who is gradually shifting to being more like Activision that somehow isn't being influenced by Activision.

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Role queue and endless DPS buffs + tank/support nerfs are the main OW killers that come to recent mind, though there were plenty of shit before that, like Ironclad Bastion or never nerfing Tracer until like four years into the game.

I havent played since I let my PS+ expire half a year ago though.

Just to summarise what has happened to Blizzard in the last few years
- In 2016 Rob Pardo, the former chief creative officer at Blizzard and lead designer of World of Warcraft, started Bonfire Studios.

- Joining Pardo in leaving Blizzard was lead level designer for Overwatch David Adams, Battle.net engineering team lead Matthew Versluys, and Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls director Joshua Mosqueira.

- In 2018 Ben Brode, the former director of Hearthstone, left Blizzard to form Second Dinner alongside Hearthstone executive producer Hamilton Chu. Second Dinner, which also consists of other former long time Blizzard employees such as technical artist Kyle Harrison, esports and Blizzcon program manager Nicki Broderick, senior concept artist Jomaro Kindred, Heartstone production director Yong Woo, and senior game producer of World of Warcraft & director of Creative Development Jason Stilwell, announced in 2019 that they would be working on a game within the Marvel universe.

- In 2020 former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime announced Dreamhaven. Dreamhaven is a new video game development company made up of two studios: Moonshot and Secret Door.

- Moonshot is led by former Blizzard executive producer Jason Chayes, and the team includes former Hearthstone creative director Ben Thompson, and StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm director Dustin Browder.

- Secret Door is being led by former Hearthstone producer Chris Sigaty, Heroes of the Storm game director Alan Dabiri, and Hearthstone game director Eric Dodds.

- 2020 also had the announcement of Frost Giant Studios. The team is being led by former StarCraft 2 production director Tim Morten, lead campaign designer of WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne Tim Campbell, and senior program manager at Blizzard esports Cara LaForge.

I'm sure it's completely normal for a studio to hemorrhage most of its leadership in the space of a few years as they consistently start up their own studios that constantly hire other people who also left

Now we have this. The Overwatch director who randomly left in the middle of the sequels development with barely a word said to the community

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Darmik posted...

Just to summarise what has happened to Blizzard in the last few years

That's just the videogame studio cycle.

1. Big publisher buys studio
2. Suits start throwing their weight around
3. Anyone actually talented leaves, usually to start other studios
4. Quality suffers
5. Big publisher demands cost cuts, fires anyone useful who didn't already leave
6. Quality suffers more
7. Big publisher demands "monetization"
8. Holy shit the quality completely tanked
9. Big publisher closes studio
10. Studio's IPs that you remember get milked into dust
11. Big publisher buys one of those studios from step 3

Let's be clear, unnamed devs can be just as good if not significantly better than the old ones. One leaving just gives another an opportunity to give us something fresh.

However, the biggest concern is that the entire Blizzard company has become a shell of its former self only existing by name and now under complete activision control. Before at least the old guard to put up some resistance to the money people. That is now gone.

Those new talented devs would be better off going out on their own on independent ventures.


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