Jeff Kaplan Reveals His Breaking Point at Blizzard: It Was the Biggest ‘F You’

Jeff Kaplan has explained what his breaking point was while working at Blizzard.

Jeff Kaplan recently participated in a lengthy interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast. During the discussion, he explained that his breaking point at Blizzard came during a conversation with the company’s CFO about Overwatch’s success.

Jeff Kaplan Had the Fate of 1,000 People in His Hands

Kaplan recalls being told several years ago that the game had to make a certain amount of money. The exact amount was bleeped out out of respect for his confidentiality agreement with Blizzard. There was also a recurring Revenue amount that was bleeped out. He was also told that if those metrics weren’t met, they would lay off 1,000 people and that it would be on Kaplan’s head.

Kaplan, who did end up leaving Activision Blizzard in 2021, was a co-creator of Overwatch and called that moment the biggest “fuck you” of his career. He would also say that the executive is no longer working at the company. Dennis Durkin, although unnamed, was the CFO of Activision Blizzard at the time that Kaplan is referring to.

Overwatch’s Recent Changes

After re-releasing as a sequel in 2023, Overwatch 2 reverted to its original name and is now taking a different narrative-driven approach. Blizzard has insisted that the name change does not mean that the original switch was a failure. Learn more about the change here.

Right now, the gaming industry is undergoing massive restructures in big and small companies. Perhaps most notable was Highguard, a highly touted game that had its servers go offline less than 2 months after starting. Learn more about that here.

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