Blizzard shocked and excitedOverwatchfans around the world at BlizzCon 2019 when the company officially announced a full sequel to the shooter withOverwatch 2. However, the newest entry to the popularhero-shooter has been hit with frequent delaysnow pushing back its release until at least 2023. With the second game seemingly struggling with development and the first seeing a major content drought, many of the team working onOverwatchhave placed the blame on Activision Blizzard’s CEO.
WhenOverwatchfirst stormed onto the scene in 2016, the hero-shooter took the gaming world by storm with its addictive gameplay, flashy designs, and unique character designs.Overwatchquickly became one of the most popular games in the world and saw the rise of a flourishing esports environment. However,Overwatchhas fallen on hard times in recent years with the game’s popularity dwindling and now, in the wake of Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard, several developers working onOverwatch 2have targeted CEO Bobby Kotick as the cause behind the delays.
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Overwatchproducer Tracy Kennedy recently took to Twitter to criticizeBobby Kotick’s actionsas CEO in response to a recent interview with GamesBeat. Kennedy would reveal that Kotick would often task the team with major projects forOverwatchat random which often resulted in taking development effort away fromOverwatch 2for months at a time. Kennedy also references employees frequently working overtime on these impulse projects only to see the fruit of their efforts eventually canceled.
Kennedy concluded by referring to Kotick as a “coward hiding behind scapegoats” and a “greedy joke,” lambasting the company’s CEO as the massive developer begins the process of merging with Microsoft. Kennedy makes reference to other Activision Blizzard employees coming out from the woodwork to implicate Kotick as a cause behind many of the development issues with the company that has seenseveral major titles hit with delaysover the past few months.
The story of Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard has already become one of the biggest headlines in the gaming world early into 2022. Themassive deal totaling nearly $70 billioncomes on the heels of Microsoft acquiringElder Scrollsdeveloper Bethesda earlier in 2021 and will see Microsoft fall into ownership of some of the hottest franchises in gaming fromCall of DutytoWarcraft. Microsoft has also stated its intention for many new Activision Blizzard titles to have Day 1 launches on Xbox Game Pass. WithOverwatch 2entering its third full year of development, fans can only hope the game won’t be delayed much longer.
