Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan returns with a Western survival shooter
- Jeff Kaplan is back, leading The Legend of California at Kintsugiyama, an indie multiplayer action-survival FPS set on a mythical island California during a gold rush era.
- Kaplan left Blizzard in 2021 after serving as Overwatch lead director and working on World of Warcraft, citing growing corporate pressure to prioritise revenue over game development and a 1,000-person layoff threat tied to missed targets.
- Players can craft, gather, hunt, fight and build, while a 34-strong team designed the world with seeded randomization and players form companies of up to three.
- Rather than a traditional showcase, Kaplan revealed the project during a five-hour appearance on Lex Fridman's podcast, with closed alpha playtests expected soon and Early Access later this year.
- Mixing Red Dead Redemption and Rust influences, the game reimagines California as an island and Dreamhaven’s involvement positions it within industry conversations about developer autonomy and corporate pressure.
39 Articles
39 Articles
Jeff Kaplan Says He Quit Overwatch After Blizzard Threatened to Blame 1,000 Layoffs On Him
Former Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan is revealing new details about why he abruptly left Blizzard in 2021, and his explanation paints a troubling picture of the pressure placed on the development team behind one of the company’s most successful franchises. During a recent interview on the Lex Fridman podcast, Kaplan described a meeting with Blizzard leadership that he says ultimately pushed him to walk away from the company. According to K…
Ex-Overwatch lead reveals new cowboy-themed open world game
Ever wanted to be a cowboy and stake your claim on the land? The Legend of California is an indie multiplayer action-survival FPS that lets you do just that. Developed by Kintsugiyama and published by Dreamhaven (the game company of former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime), The Legend of California is headed by a name that Overwatch fans will recognize: Jeff Kaplan.
Jeff Kaplan Says Overwatch League Pressure Helped Drive His Blizzard Exit
The former head of the Overwatch team, Jeff Kaplan, has revealed why he left Blizzard after nearly two decades with the company. Jeff Kaplan announced his departure from Blizzard Entertainment back in August 2021, with Overwatch 2 still in development. Fans questioned the video game designer’s choice, considering Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002 as a quest designer for the next great MMORPG, World of Warcraft. In 2009, Kaplan was inserted as proje…
Former Overwatch Lead claims he was given a horrid ultimatum: meet revenue goals or 1,000 developers would lose jobs
Former Overwatch lead Jeff Kaplan has claimed that, due to financial pressures brought on by the Overwatch League, he was given an ultimatum by then Blizzard CFO, Dennis Durkin. That ultimatum was, essentially, 'make sure Overwatch meets certain revenue goals, or 1,000 developers would lose their jobs'.
Former Overwatch Boss Jeff Kaplan Announces New Multiplayer Shooter After Years of Silence
Jeff Kaplan, the longtime Blizzard designer and director behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has officially ended his near-five-year silence in the most understated way possible: a five-hour Lex Fridman Podcast episode and a Steam wishlist page. His new studio, kintsugiyama, has been quietly building a game for the last four years. That game is The Legend of California, which, in the official wording, is described as an “open-world, ac…
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