author: Michael Zegar
Blizzard Removes References to Former Overwatch Director
The Blizzard controversy continues. A reference to former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has been removed from the upcoming Overwatch 2. A handful of information about Bastion gameplay changes have also been revealed.
A month ago we wrote about the renaming of one of the characters from the popular Overwatch. The reason for the decision was the fact that the character was named after a developer, who moments earlier had been fired for "unprofessional behavior". We could also see similar actions in World of Warcraft. As it turned out, references are removed not only to employees involved in Blizzard's (the studio responsible for the aforementioned games) lawsuit, but also to developers not mentioned in any of the allegations. This time the company targeted a reference to Jeff Kaplan in one of the maps from the upcoming Overwatch 2.
Kaplan is the man responsible for designing the world of World of Warcraft, who later served as the lead designer of Overwatch before leaving the studio this April. Last Saturday, Blizzard released a new trailer for the long-awaited Overwatch 2, focusing on the changes introduced to Bastion. Reddit user CeeLo38 noted on the trailer, that an easter egg with a reference to the designer's name has been removed from the name of a pizzeria on the New York map.
The word "Jephs" disappeared from the sign of the pizzeria. Source: Reddit.
Apart from the pizzeria, two other references to Kaplan were spotted in the game before that: a coffee mug commemorating his first visit to Starbucks at Blizzard, where his name was misspelled as "Jeph", and a copy of the fictional book The Green Hills of Stranglethorn - a reference to the infamous quest in World of Warcraft, which Kaplan created. It is quite likely, therefore, that these were also cut.
While it's possible that the lack of reference is due to the fact that the trailer may have been made on an older version of the game (an easter egg was spotted during the May presentation) before "Jeph" was added to the name of the pizzeria, judging by Blizzard's recent actions, it's more likely that this peculiar "homage" was deliberately removed. At this point, it remains unknown what awaits other references to workers in the first Overwatch and other Blizzard and Activision games.
As for the changes to Bastion - the main novelty is the ability to move in sentry mode, but with a significant reduction in speed. Character will lose the ability to self-repair, instead gaining a grenade that can stick to enemies and bounce off surfaces. A new ultimate ability will be the ability to transform into a mortar, enabling us to mark three locations across the map where we want our projectiles to fall.
Overwatch 2 will be released on PC, Xbox One, PS4, as well as Xbox Series X|S and PS5. The release date has not yet been announced.
