It's been nearly five years since Jeff Kaplan, the former game director of Blizzard Entertainment's (and now Xbox's, too) competitive multiplayer hero shooter Overwatch, left the studio in 2021. Very little was known about the reasons for Kaplan's departure then; now, though, he's revealed the catalyst for his exit.
Speaking in a colossal new five-hour-long interview with YouTuber and podcaster Lex Fridman, Kaplan revealed that he ultimately left Blizzard due to extreme demands for Overwatch revenue from the developer's chief financial officer at the time. Specifically, the CFO threatened to lay off 1,000 developers if Overwatch didn't hit certain performance targets, and told Kaplan they'd be blamed on him personally.
