Former Overwatch Director Reveals Exit Story: Executives Threatened Layoffs of 1,000 People, Calling It “The Biggest F**k You Moment of My Career”

Nearly five years after leaving Activision Blizzard, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has spoken publicly for the first time about the real reasons behind his departure in a podcast interview. The iconic figure who served as the public face of Overwatch from 2014 to 2021 revealed that excessive commercialization of the Overwatch League and financial pressure from senior executives ultimately forced him to leave the company where he had worked for nearly two decades.

Excessive League Commercialization Diverted Resources from Core Game

Recalling on the Lex Fridman podcast, Kaplan described how the Overwatch League, founded in 2017, was overhyped from its inception. The promises made to investors were so idealized that he even claimed the league would become more popular than the NFL.

These overcommitments soon had consequences. To meet the demands of the league and its “billionaire investors,” the development team had to divert energy from core game content to league-related features, including Twitch integration, spectator camera control, and team uniform skins. Kaplan admitted: “And so all your plans [for Overwatch content] at that point kinda go out the window. You’re not working on new world events, you’re not focused on Overwatch 2, you’re just treading water.”

More frustrating for him was that when Activision Blizzard failed to meet investor expectations through the league, the pressure was shifted onto the development team. “I don’t know how to phrase this in a way that’s not damning, but there was too much focus on ‘let’s make lots of money really fast’ and a lot of people got drawn into it.” Kaplan noted that the initial vision of in-person events, ticket sales, and merchandise quickly proved impractical for global synchronized operations. Investors soon turned their attention back to the game itself, asking, “didn’t Overwatch make 500 million dollars just in the live game last year?” and “What can we sell, and what can you give us?”

“If You Don’t Meet the Target, We’ll Lay Off 1,000 People, and It’ll Be On You”

What ultimately broke Kaplan was an exquisitely cruel meeting with the company’s then-CFO.

“What ultimately broke me and my Blizzard career was I got called into the CFO’s office,” Kaplan recalled. “He gives me a date which at the time was 2020 and was going to slip to 2021, but at the time it was 2020—and he said: ‘Overwatch has to make [redacted] in 2020, and then every year after that it needs a recurring revenue of [redacted]’ and then he says to me ‘if it doesn’t do [redacted] we’re going to lay off 1,000 people, and that’s going to be on you.'”

Kaplan described this as “the biggest f**k you moment” of his career, saying the entire scene felt surreal. Due to a confidentiality agreement he signed, specific financial figures were redacted.

Had Planned to Retire at Blizzard, Ultimately Departed in 2021

Kaplan stated that he deeply loved Blizzard and never imagined leaving. “I had believed that I would never work in any place but Blizzard, I loved it, it was a part of who I was, and I thought that I was a part of it. And I literally thought I’d retire from the place.” However, that meeting changed everything.

On April 20, 2021, Kaplan announced his departure. He added that the CFO who pressured him at the time is no longer with the company. Public records show that Dennis Durkin served as CFO of Activision Blizzard from 2019 to May 2021, followed by Armin Zerza who held the role until 2025.

As of press time, Activision Blizzard has not issued an official response to these matters.

Turbulent Times for Overwatch 2, Renamed Earlier This Year

After Kaplan’s departure, Overwatch 2 was eventually released in 2023, but launched without several key advertised features, including a long-promised PvE mode. Earlier this year, the game was renamed back to simply Overwatch, marking an attempt by the title to rediscover its original identity after years of turbulence.