Jeff Kaplan’s Words on Overwatch Being Held to Stratospheric Standards Did Not Age Well After Marvel Rivals

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Jeff Kaplan’s Words on Overwatch Being Held to Stratospheric Standards Did Not Age Well After Marvel Rivals

Let’s be honest here, when Overwatch dropped all the way back in 2016, no one could’ve predicted its success. The hero-shooter was Blizzard and Jeff Kaplan’s love child, and it completely transformed the genre and pulled in millions of gamers to the action.

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has been facing a downward spiral. (Image via Blizzard)

Kaplan had always regarded Overwatch as one of his finest works. When the sequel dropped, and its launch was filled with problems, players still had hopes that the game could make a return. However, with the launch of Marvel Rivals, it’s quite clear that Overwatch has lost the battle, and Kaplan’s beloved game is down the drain.

Jeff Kaplan’s Overwatch has lost its way

A few months after the original Overwatch hit shelves, Jeff Kaplan sat down with

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and opened up about the game’s development and what Blizzard was planning for the future.

When asked how Blizzard manages to keep up with player expectations and scrutiny with every balance change and update, Kaplan stated that he loves meeting the challenge. Instead of seeing everything as a burden, Kaplan and his team felt that they could only thrive in such an environment and use it as a way to improve.

I love being held to high expectations. And part of the thrill of what we do is trying to meet them. I know we won’t always meet them, but I think that the type of developer that’s attracted to be at a place like Blizzard wants that challenge and wants to try to make the best thing possible. 

Blizzard, during the era of the original, the hero-shooter, loved meeting the high player expectations, but what has happened to that motivation in today’s time? The studio promised that Overwatch 2 would breathe fresh life into the franchise, but all it did bring was broken promises and changes that no one had asked for to begin with.

Forget meeting players’ “expectations”; the studio doesn’t even know where to take the game at this point, which is quite clear from the juggling between 5v5 and 6v6 format. What’s even worse is that Overwatch finally has a direct competitor, Marvel Rivals.

Not only has Marvel Rivals managed to meet the community’s demands but also gone overboard in basically all aspects. Right from fun features and game modes to heroes, there’s something for everyone in the brand-new shooter. Developer NetEase Games has made sure the community doesn’t feel left out and rushes to address concerns.

We can only imagine how Overwatch 2 would’ve been under Kaplan’s leadership and motivation to satisfy gamers.

Can Blizzard still save Overwatch with future updates?

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Blizzard finally realizes the dire situation it is in and plans to bring major updates to Overwatch 2 in the future. The studio has recently

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its first Director’s Take of 2025, where game directly director Aaron Keller talks about various things players can expect to see soon.

After reflecting back on every change brought to the game’s competitive scene, Keller stated that the game mode will continue with a yearly cycle, which will allow players to reach even higher ranks.

According to Keller, the Champion rank wasn’t achievable like Blizzard had thought initially. There’s a chance we could see some adjustments in the upcoming season.

It’s still unknown if we’ll see a new hero in Season 15, but Keller says that Blizzard is working on one that has mobility similar to characters released in 2024.

We’ll soon see new systems in Competitive that will be announced in a few weeks, and ***** weapon variants will be axed and replaced with a brand-new type.

With that said, are you hyped about Overwatch‘s future? Let us know in the comments below.

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