Blizzard's Fatal Mistakes That Led to Its Downfall

Gaming Journalist Jason Schreier is promoting a tell-all book on the Rise and Fall of Blizzard Entertainment, a story that Overwatch is at the hinge point of as the game that underwent the transition away from the core principles that built Blizzard to begin with, into the most mishandled IP in gaming history.
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[@TimelostGamer]

So to sum it up The game and blizzard as a whole was ruined by corporate monkeys Man.

[@hatakegon5922]

Did you even watch the video?

[@TimelostGamer]

@@hatakegon5922 I did That was more or less the main takeaway. Did you?

[@hatakegon5922]

@@TimelostGamer So the giant ego of Blizzard devs like Jeff not accepting to change and adapt to the market wasn't a part of it?. Not to mention the culture of sexual harassment created way before Kotic ever had anything to do with the company

[@majorshepard2]

​@@hatakegon5922you mean the market of 40$ skin prices that 90% of people will never buy and the game dies because that's the only content?. Yes, we all know, we all watched the video. It was corporate. I never heard about sexual harassment before Activision's overtake so please clear me up with timelines bro.

[@gnarledcox]

​@majorshepard2 people have been saying for YEARS "actiblizz, we'd love to buy your OW skins if they were like $10 each" but Activision doesn't believe in not cashing out as hardvas possible and Blizzard refuses to charge a low price for their artist's work Both fail to understand that they've been sitting on untold would-be cosmetic sales, but they live in Microsoft Excel and not reality so they don't know to just adjust prices

[@vestaexe2224]

It's crazy how much money they could of make with Overwatch. Series, PvE toys etc... They literally had a gold mine. All they had to do is make the community happy THAT'S IT! They literally f'd up that bad.

[@bradenhetzel874]

Right the only way they could revive overwatch is bring back 6v6, actually develope a pve mode, revive OWL, and make more lore but they wont do any of this besides maybe 6v6

[@scottmelons]

@@bradenhetzel874 Bringing things back to when the game peaked in popularity doesn't mean they were without flaws and would work now. The OWL was a fun idea but was forced at a time when the game wasn't ready for it. What they're doing now for the OW competitive scene is actually much healthier for natural growth within the game. I do agree PVE and things like tv series and cinematics should have never been cut though.

[@vestaexe2224]

@@bradenhetzel874 Yeah just like Arcane on netflix people who don't even play league found it very good even Edgerunners it sky rocketed the playbase back. 6v6 would be amazing idk how it will be now with all the changes and the new maps

[@dddd-uk4vn]

@@bradenhetzel874 6v6 will make the game worse lmao, the balancing is better than it's ever been in OW1. all they need to do is come out with PvE which'll take years if you want it to be good

[@Walt_Xander94]

​@@bradenhetzel874 Why do ya'll keep thinking bringing 6v6 back will be a good thing. Ya'll are wearing rose-tinted glasses. Ignoring that dumbass teammates ruined 6v6. They are in 5v5 as well, but OW1 was a worse hellhole. The DPS favoritism was certainly a factor. Hell, idk why Blizzard doesn't just go all DPS now

[@LordShadowZ]

Basically just confirming what we already knew. Corpos who understand nothing about video games, how they're made, and how to maintain a community and good will to keep customers coming back, forcing their idiocy onto the developers who make them and pushing them out of the company, burning everything to the ground. The AAA industry is rotten to the core.

[@nex5691]

Ready player one confirmed this too that CEO’s don’t know video games and usually use business instead of listening to fans

[@Turtlpwr]

If a game is AAA or AAAAA I’m just not playing it these days.

[@ReaveIdono]

What? COD is successful despite how much people claim to hate it. They wanted to support OW properly and this is a problem? Lmao.

[@markfreeman4727]

@@ReaveIdono they wanted to turn OW into a skin factory like COD

[@iyxon]

Overwatch is SERIOUSLY the biggest bag fumble in video game history, and this video only supports that statement

[@thatloner2831]

Eh not so sure about that, have you heard about Concord, or the current state of Ubisoft. Now those are entertaining shit shows.

[@IhsanMujdeci]

@@thatloner2831 I mean they had gold in their hands with a loyal fanbase and awesome gameplay, I think thats what @iyxon means. Concord is one of the largest dead on arrival games in recent history.

[@DuvJones]

It's big, not doubt about that.... honestly, I think that missing the Moba ship (when built in it's own backyard) is actually bigger. They had a chance to truly transcend Warcraft into something else and just.... whiffed. Given the popularity of the genre since LoL dropped and DOTA2 establishing it's indepentance, that is a failure of imagination so grand that it is hard to put into words. That said, Overwatch is next on that shameful list.

[@Walt_Xander94]

​@@thatloner2831 Overwatch is worse than Concord, because not only did it have a huge fan following, it made money, it had those cool animated shorts that made you wonder why Blizzard doesn't just make animated movies, but things started going downhill when the OWL started. Blizzard kept favoring DPS for those Pros & Streamers, refuse to nerf them & let them have all the power, but Tanks & Healers got nerfed to death. Or should I say, ACTUAL Tanks & Healers, not the extra DPS in those categories like Hog & Ana. Then there's OW2 taking so long to be made, and it promised a campaign mode. Jeff left. ActivisionBlizzard's investigation happened. OW2 released but went the F2P route because everyone wants to be Fortnite, but they dont get that Epic ISNT greedy. OW2's launch was terrible, and before all heroes were free again, spenders had the P2W advantage. Did I miss anything? Overwatch should've basically been today's Halo.

[@GraphiteBlimp27]

@@Walt_Xander94That second paragraph is wild… in the period you are talking about when OWL launched is about the time we got GOATS meta and yes there was powercreep but only because they broke the logic of the game with OP support/tank kits

[@micahfoster7717]

I love the Freedo-Dev lore that has slowly been creeping out over the years. By 2030 we are gonna hear that Freedo and Jeff Kaplan had a boxing match over hero bans.

[@YourOverwatch]

I lol'd

[@Turtlpwr]

😂😂😂😂

[@nadavg1176]

I will pay big money to see that

[@poonnanie]

Good to see you back Freedo, hope all is well

[@AL3X1KUS]

What happened?

[@soccerthepkmnmaster]

​@@AL3X1KUS He didn't make a video about the mid season patch, so people thought Freedo was missing.

[@majorshepard2]

​@@AL3X1KUSHe called people he sided before flat earthers and delusional and then had the same take as them. So he went into hiding for months to hope people forget that he shilled for all the problems he calls out now months before they happened.

[@NSeaBear]

What's next for you freedo?

[@eckroattheeckroat4246]

A lot of hating on Kaplan in the comments. You know why there hasn't been a new overwatch box literally every year since release like CoD? Kaplan's a big big part of why. Wonder why they don't sell the new heroes? Or sell the new maps? Again Kaplan isn't the whole story, but he's a big part of it. Remember when they spent all that time giving us capture the flag and 6v6 lock out, but didn't make them default game modes because it didn't feel "like overwatch"? Yeah, Kaplan's why. CoD players were/are dropping $60/70 dollars a year to buy basically the same game over again; no one blinks. We're talking something like 8 games or more at this point for over 300 dollars. You are still playing a game you dropped 60 dollars on nearly a decade ago, and everyone loses their minds when they try to charge 20 dollars for a lame skin that you can literally just not buy and continue playing anyway. Yes, you can blame Kaplan for slowing development, but you should also thank him for standing in the way of activision shovelling cash-grab garbage out every year and also halting wildly predatory pay-to-win monetization. The Kaplan hate is wildly misplaced.

[@heretustay]

100% agree. also, without kaplan, there would likely be no OW as we know it. let's all chill out on hating him

[@SuperSaltyGod]

Too bad a lot of OW players can't read b/c you're making too much sense

[@ebunny1652]

Yeah it's all just more nuanced and complex than people like to admit (as Jason Schreier himself points out). But the same could be said for most things. People just like to pick a side and argue about good or bad, right or wrong, while reality is usually not that simple.

[@verguco6051]

jeff wanted to make something great and fight to protect it but there is not much a single man can do vs corpo crap, jeff crime was loving ow and being ambitious on the good way. aaron keller is an idiot who only give excuses

[@nex5691]

@@heretustayexactly and then ppl go like but we have Aaron who is much better Bruh ow now with Aaron as the director of the game is bad lol he is doing nothing but makings skins only for the game nothing else new only bp and skins only

[@phredbookley183]

"Somehow we got the worst of both product management strategies." Bruh. Right there. That's it right there. ( At about 8:50 ish )

[@tns6862]

The thing I miss most is video updates of Jeff from the Overwatch team and subsequent Dinoflask videos...

[@jeffrenjr]

Fact that Dino quit after Jeff resigned was lowkey telling of his influence on the OW community. I miss all that as well as his Christmas streams

[@kiritoalt2657]

moral of the story *MARKETING PEOPLE STAY AT MARKETING STUFF*

[@asfasy]

i think u mean finance ppl stay at finance stuff, but point taken

[@Dukenukem]

@@asfasy Problem is, that finances touches everything in company. Once you need proper CFO, your company is too large to be runned in other then "profit 1st" mode (or very near this point). Your options then are to break it up into smaller chunks that are orchestrated by the larger holding company or scale down (and lose a lot of potential money).

[@ghg-bq7xg]

@@Dukenukemorr make your organisation private like valve and keep the investors out of it. Its clear as day, valve is what blizzard wanted to be couldn’t. Not that valve is perfect but they do got that creative liberty to make good products and because of that they’re making more money than blizzard ever will

[@cl4709]

Here’s what happens. Creative ppl make amazing thing. Thing is amazing so it makes $$ Marketing team gets credit. Marketing ppl get promoted. Creative ppl get fired. Thing eventually starts to suck.

[@devinaschenbrenner2683]

No Moral of the story is dont have a greedy douche bag CEO who wants to just rape the customers for money.

[@MajorMokoto]

all this can be summed up as, idiots who think "endless revenue" is actually a thing. And if the product doesn't make ALL the money, it's a failure. I'm so tired of the dumbest people being in charge of things.

[@tailgrowth]

I remember reading something, I wish I could remember who wrote it or the term they called it, that examined the importance of maintaining goodwill and trust with your consumers. Because stuff like this happens in so many industries, not just gaming or entertainment: A company creates a product or service that people really like. Then, over time, in order to make more money they change features to make it worse. This doesn't backfire on them immediately; they still have so much goodwill from their loyal base, or just the inertia from previous support and lack of motive to stop using the product, and they don't really lose customers for that decision. This emboldens them to push things further and make more and more decisions that upset the consumers, but aside from grumbling and slight losses it still doesn't drive people away. Then eventually the company hits the last straw, and consumers abandon it in droves, finally fed up from the growing sentiment that has been building all this time. So the company panics and backpedals and reverses some of their unpopular decisions, but do the customers come back? No. Because that trust they had with the product is gone, and in reality they had dropped the company emotionally a long time ago. The "last straw" was not the one moment that broke them, it was simply their action to leave for a competitor finally catching up to their desire that had been there for much longer. That goodwill cannot be won back by simply reversing the past few negative decisions, it takes SIGNIFICANTLY more than that to rebuild the trust that had been whittled away for so long, and some customers will never return....

[@croatiarailways]

Bobby Kotick is the living proof of how corporates bosses are trying to ruin gaming industry.

[@fractalelf7760]

@@croatiarailways Did you even watch the whole video?

[@razorback9999able]

Not just the gaming industry, but ALL industries.

[@kevingame3198]

@@razorback9999able not to mention, Microsoft are gonna make things worse because we saw an example out of it. They shut down, tango Gameworks, which thankfully was saved by pubg publisher and Arkane Austin

[@1c3sly13]

I just knew there would be an Arcane type Netflix show for OW. I thought Kaplan mentioned it was in the plan at one point. I can't believe how much they destroyed their own game.

[@TsuchiGamer06]

Crazy how the C suite people were all greedy and focusing on money at the time, but now look at ABK, barely standing on its legs. Sure it might make money now but imagine the Good Will, OW fans, WoW fans, Starcraft etc and general GOOD FAITH they lost in the last 10 years they could be THE company but now look at them

[@jeffythesomething8772]

Basically Bobby and the other suits cashed all of that in for a check to themselves.

[@anabolicino]

Its the same story with Bethesda. Bethesda was top of the prime like 10-15 years ago, on par with Halo and Cod for the RPG franchise side of gaming and look what happened to them re-releasing Skyrim 25 times and bombing Starfield instead of just actually making a good game. Now nobody gives 2 shits about Bethesda except for the people playing 76 which is slop soup.

[@charaznable8082]

Freedo! Glad you're back. Hope you're doing okay?

[@malohn2068]

Whats scary about this is, we on the internet like to say "Oh big bad corporate man ruined it" but we all dont actually know what really goes on behind locked doors. But here it is, the truth straight from an insider. Corporate man bad.

[@AbbyOW2]

Hope you're doing okay big man, missed your content.

[@BarakaAndrew]

Worse than we thought. Dude wanted BlizzCon gone coz it doesn't make them money? 😂 How is a guy like that hired and paid millions?

[@dshredmusic]

A "competitive" game with such intricate and complex mechanics consistently rigging a matchmaker to validate bad players at the expense of the more dedicated ones while allowing every kind of sport misbehaviors, when at the same time nothing about the game was rewarding and all we've been getting are shallow battle passes and half assed cosmetic implementations with absurd microtransaction rates, add to it the usual sprinkle of virtue signaling to keep the ESG scores high... I'd say the financial knuckleheads have been calling the shots for a reeeeeeeally long time. The blizzard we knew and loved died long ago.

[@exaltedexile6290]

I haven't played overwatch in 6 months after playing it regularly for the last 7 years. I'll be back to try 6v6.

[@quetzelmichaels1637]

I heard the DEV team was replaced by the Marketing Department. Initially, D4 had no endgame. Now, it is expected that you skip the campaign and go straight to the endgame. People asked for a higher level of monster density. They got. Only in the endgame. The campaign seems to have been abandoned by Blizzard. The Pit of the Artificer has 200 levels of difficulty, all in two dungeon levels.

[@TsuchiGamer06]

Flying by the seat of its pants at the hands of CEO mindsets really just crushed this IP. It's so sad PvE, animated series, and any good faith just destroyed because Bobby and Business heads seeped into the dev's business

[@fractalelf7760]

@@TsuchiGamer06 Kaplan bears more blame.

[@dasifa]

This is when the people at the top cares to much about money...they ran the game like a mobile gaming company. Honestly they are small minded and could not see a bigger picture...anything that could have made a quick buck they wanted to push...

[@AlexTheHorrid]

The only good thing we can look forward to now is the 6v6 test. I cannot believe how hard one of my favorite games fell. I didn’t want OW2 to begin with I loved OW1 to no end. Didn’t think it would be this bad though

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

It’s bad enough when we got ridiculous prices on skins, no PvE at all, and no animated series. Microsoft and Blizzard doesn’t care for their IP

[@gamerstimes127]

I bet they are going to cancel it, like PvE

[@AlexTheHorrid]

@@gamerstimes127 it is possible. The engine is legit worse that OW1 lol. Such a rushed game

[@chrisb5000]

They better nerf all the tanks at least 50% health & barriers for 6v6.

[@joshuacollins9316]

@@AlexTheHorridok that’s false. The OW2 engine has multiple significant improvements they had to implement to be able to make the PVE part of the game function. So overall the engine is an upgrade.

[@basil8940]

Buying Warcraft 3: Reforged was the last time I gave Blizzard any money. This book is supposed to talk about the future of Blizzard. They've got a lot to do to restore my consumer confidence.

[@Lanewreck]

"The truth" corporate greed. There you go.

[@frtd12345]

Jeff: Passion over efficiency Bobby: Efficiency over passion You’d think they would be able to meet in the middle but no, it’s one or the other.

[@dethclaw]

I was one in the camp of hope that OW was going to be 100% Blizzard and not an Activision product. I don't blame Kaplan wholly for OW downfalls but I don't think he understood that a 'live-ops' team for game balance while keeping team 4 on game dev was needed to give the players a "Better" Blizzard experience while keeping the Blizzard magic. I have always been ok with the old Blizzard's, "when its ready" mantra. I was willing to give Blizzard money in OW and I did. Im not okay with current direction of OW/Team 4 and the Activison monetization scheme to continue a product that is missing it heart and soul. I've heard more good out of old blizzard than bad, more good of how Mike's managerial style then bad. I feel that Activison's and Vivendi's meddling undermined Mike's vision and corrupted Blizzard from within. I hope that Schreier book will not completely contradict my feelings and understandings however I would trust Schreier's research better than my personal findings and feelings as I've only ever been a Blizzard customer.

[@noxalbus]

So what I'm gathering from this is that, Jeff and his team wanted to go the old traditional way of making a good game slowly, but them accidentally getting too much popularity got Bobby Kotick's eyes on them. TBH although Freedo called this a "rare Bobby W", it's also a "common Bobby L" because he's a boss that cannot respect a team for what they want to do, despite their wild success WITHOUT his involvement. Talking strictly counterfactuals here: if Bobby and his corpo buddies didn't intervene, Team 4 would have spent a long time making OW2 (probably barely making it before players got angry because of the lack of updates) and delivered. That's the old Blizzard way that players learned to both love and hate, after all. If Team 4 obliged and had more employees, OW would probably lose its charm for some players soon enough, but could just as quickly draw in new players who are more used to the Activision way. Unfortunate that this had to mirror politics yet again...... two sides arguing so much that neither did anything, leading to tragedy.

[@FAZZAMJF]

Been waiting for something like this to come out. It’s a shame how people/mistakes can kill a good thing and the people involved. I miss 2CP and lootboxes. But I really miss calling it just OverWatch. So now we just need interviews with these people. Love to hear them rant in person but also talk about where they are now too! Good video :)

[@matteorusso4001]

I can understand the lootboxes, but 2CP I found was a poorly developed mode and they never wanted or tried to fix it properly.

[@nubastyle]

Overwatch had a WORLD WIDE FOLLOWING That could've been as big as Marvel! Just couldn't prioritize and work together properly. Now that Marvel Rivals is coming out, they know its overwith and now lashing out.

[@matteorusso4001]

For me Marvel Rivals is really just a worse Overwatch. For example, it can be fun, but there are more annoying things than Overwatch and the spikes are not as high as Overwatch. Sure, I like Black Panther and Venom, but once I'm out of this phase in a few days probably some of the players will return to Overwatch, others will stay because they prefer it and it will create its own fan base, but it won't be the "Overwatch killer".

[@Silicon_0014]

looks like blizzard didn't know how to properly scale anything (maybe still don't) in the modern techscape. seems most people hating on kaplan probably don't understand you can't quickly scale a dev team without nontrivial consequences.

[@matteorusso4001]

Your analysis is interesting and I agree that the hatred for Kaplan is overblown, but I also think that maybe he should have scaled back his plans or accepted some of the development team's expansion if he wanted that PvE so badly, instead of continuing his own path leading to the current situation.

[@joshuax1987]

this really make me regret support OW, well at least it was fun for the 1st 4-5 year

[@SurfingSerpent]

Regretting that you played OW would be like regretting that you played CoD during its golden era around BO2. Don't regret the time you spent. Be glad you got to experience it when it was good, because none of the kids growing up will get to have that experience. We all have to let things go when they fall off. We just have to appreciate that we had it when we had it. Then we move on. We have Marvel Rivals and Deadlock to replace OW.

[@joshuax1987]

maybe my word worng, it more of regret of believing OW would no end up like that. I do love OW, it is the 1st game I bought proper equipment to play it Thought OW would take its time be like SC, having some dedicated player and became less popular over long time, Did not expect it just drop off the cliff.

[@matteorusso4001]

​@@SurfingSerpent For me Marvel Rivals is simply a worse Overwatch. For example, it can be fun, but there are more annoying things than Overwatch and the spikes are not as high as Overwatch. Deadlock is a PC-only third-person MOBA, a different type of game and audience than OW and MR. Sure, I like Black Panther, Venom, Infernus and Bebop, but once I get out of this phase in a few days probably some players will return to Overwatch, others will stay because they prefer them and will create their own fan base, but they won't be the "Overwatch killer".

[@zombiexpanda]

I'm still amazed that people are running with this story that Kotick was a good guy in this story; y'all really cant see a monkeys paw as obvious as this? Really?

[@matteorusso4001]

Kotick certainly wasn't a good person, but trying to expand the IP wasn't a bad decision in itself.

[@GummyDinosaursify]

Kotick at the end hated Overwatch so much he completely left it off his farewell letter to the company. He's not a good guy, nor did he care about OW at the end.

[@ZapatosVibes]

Why get married to an entity that is fundamentally opposed to your values/vision as a company? Sad fate for old Blizzard.

[@louiscastellanos9984]

This is honestly one of the best videos I’ve seen all year, really interesting to see if you have been following Overwatch through its life, funny in a way all the little things that you have no control over how they shape what goes on around you, fantastic content big fan! , Bittersweet to reminisce on the past

[@RadiantSword2K]

The only reason this happened with Overwatch is because of cheaters, hackers and aimbot users. Also, Bobby Kotick is the reason why cheaters are encountered more in Overwatch 2.

[@GummyDinosaursify]

Cheaters are rampant and the cheat detection system is non existent, but it's DEFINITLY not the sole reason for the downfall of the game.

[@demonicdude1328]

Get a new team to make the PVE separate from the PVP team. Is criminal that blizzard promised us PVE when they knew they were going to cancel it a year later.

[@GummyDinosaursify]

They knew PvE was dead before launching OW2. They just didn't want to say anything because it'd cut into their profits. I mean, we don't even have everything they promised from the OW2 launch trailer. Weapon Inspects? First Person Emotes? Banners and Guilds? Nope. Nothing.

[@KKJazz]

Was worried about you man. Welcome back!

[@deepseaape]

It blows my mind that after all of this- the complete fumble and destruction of one of the most interesting and successful game IPs of all time- NO ONE who was responsible for it will face any meaningful consequence at all. They're still going to be wealthy and powerful, and will move on to their next project to completely fuck up.

[@Turtlpwr]

Oh look, C-suite destroying another good thing. God I hate corporate thought and the only motivation being the profit and then more profit of the shareholders. We truly live in a dark timeline.

[@sgtdestroy]

Great video, I hope I get a chance to read Jason's book. Most important thing I learned, however, was that Freedo pronounces "Thrall" as if it rhymes with the name "Hal".

[@vodkastudios4170]

The addition of role que took away one of my favorite parts of the game, being able to switch to another role when the teammates were not performing well allowed for so much freedom. And the combos this allowed, while more complex, just happened to be more fun. Yes way harder to balance, but that was the first time I started to realize overwatch was going in a less fun, more restrictive direction. Yes you can play open queu, but lets be honest, it is not the same as just having everyone in the same boat.

[@BlackN7]

This. I dont know why nobody is wondering about the roleq, what is the sense of having a teammate as dps role and when you go to see his profile you can see his main role is support, How deals the matchmaking with that? Also if the want to put the 2-2-2 roleq why doenst make the player choose the role after the queue? And so we would save all the queue time.

[@sclass390]

When the pro league failed and Jeff left I knew OW had no future. Of course I wanted to believe in OW2 but I wasn't going to let myself get hyped for nothing

[@kevingame3198]

Yeah, me too I jumped from the sinking ship that was blizzard and hoyoverse is on the rise because of Genshin impact and honkai Star rail eventually I’m gonna stop playing overwatch eventually because I’m won’t have time to play these games because honkai star rail and genshin impact is changing me since early days of overwatch

[@matteorusso4001]

You mean one of the most popular games on every platform it's available on isn't on the precipice of shutting down like most of reddit, KZbin and twitter think it is? A shocking development. OW has its issues and all and it will always be the poster child for missing every golden opportunity it's been presented, but it's ***wild*** that there is an enormous subsect of people out there who think that OW2 has the player base of like...New World and not the reality that it's one of the biggest live service games out there.

[@supersizesenpai]

My heart broke when OWL ended.

[@nuclearsimian3281]

Did you not watch the video and understand just how much fucking money, dev time, and resources were _wasted_ doing that shit? All to prop up Kotick's *_delusions of grandeur_* that he could create something to rival the fucken NFL!?

[@supersizesenpai]

@@nuclearsimian3281 The hell are you talking about? All I said is that I was sad the OWL ended. It's not like I called the decision a dick move or anything like that. Bad decision or not it was still entertaining.

[@whatever3554]

The PvE + the Animated Series would have had a huuuuge impact on the playerbase. What a catastrophic fumble.

[@sirbagelsworth9463]

As I've said from the beginning, everything for blizzard started going downhill once Activision got involved.

[@ruy_u]

I like Jeff, but at the same time, you can't have your cake and eat it too. I hope directors can learn from this and learn to compromise.

Oh, that's why there were no TV (mini) series of Overwatch, Starcraft or Diablo. Missed opportunity, but they did not have enough merchandise either, so the series would not have fed back into toys or plastic model sales only the game itself. If rule34 is an indicator, i bet scale models would have sold well. :o)

[@GummyDinosaursify]

There was scale models. And action figures. And lego sets.

[@zapduge]

This speaks to a wider issue happening globally around the release of Art in general. Greed. Corporate greed. Why do games suck? Why are movies so boring? Why does music not evoke the same feelings as it did in the early 2000’s? We’ve stopped getting true lovers of the arts at the highest levels and started hiring financial experts who don’t give a fuck about the art they’re involved in selling. Why make something beautiful when you can make it profitable? Every industry needs to fight back and only hire people with a genuine love for the culture they’re selling instead of finding the person who can bring in the most money at the cost of their community

[@fcfdroid]

Damn. Corporate guys ruin everything they touch

[@TheFallen4212]

That mine against the wall is genius. For multiple reasons. Imma use that ty

[@davidgillham5302]

Great to have you back Freedo. I hope you are doing ok man!

[@verguco6051]

so overwatch was pretty much death since 2019 when ow2 was announced but we didnt realized, basically blizzard has done nothing since and will do nothing, the only thing they have left is stupid overpriced collab skins, even 6vs6 test is doomed, new developers suck at balancing, 5vs5 never worked at all

[@XxXxXOzoneXxXxX]

I totally 100% agree with you on on that because whenever I heard them announcing OverWatch 2, I knew something was off. And Jeff didn't look too excited

[@nex5691]

100% agree with u Only ppl saying the game is alive are just shills, gen alpha, tiktokers, and new players They defend this game saying ow2 is goty like it isn’t it’s fucked

[@nex5691]

@@XxXxXOzoneXxXxXsame after ow2 pve blizzconline in 2021 I knew Jeff didn’t look happy

[@verguco6051]

@@XxXxXOzoneXxXxX ow2 was not a bad idea, jeff original plan announced in 2019 was perfect, was going to be a complete separated game focused only on pve story mode, ow1 pvp was going to be left intact, maybe the only bad idea was that they will going to pay another game, but you will had the option to not do it, just keep playing ow1, was going to be updated as always, ow2 was only pve, but after seeing all the info of ow2 developement that idea was too good ot be true, the moment jeff left they stopped pretending ow2 was going to be mada

[@verguco6051]

@@nex5691 i was a fool, i believed jeff departure was a good thing, lets be honest, even with jeff had a lot of problems, by 2021 the game already has no updates and the balance was crap (still better than ow2) they abandoned the game and never tried to fix it because they were making ow2, but i was a fool, i believed a new and better person will come but no, we got the wrost person, arron keller, he did absolutely nothing with ow2, all the content we get was made for ow1 by ow1 developers

[@KyrieRuwachHosanna]

I recall YT-er Pirate Software saying that the Celestial Steed was a problem not because it was P2W (as in getting some in game rewards) but because that stupid mount earned more $ than the SC2 lifetime (up till the mount's release) within a short period of time.

[@waynetec13]

Where are people getting the idea PvE wasn't fully canceled? Did y'all watch the same videos I did, when they came right out and told us it was dead?

[@AsuraAnimosity]

Completely and utterly ridiculous. All of Bobby Koticks ideas on this game has utterly DESTROYED the IP. They've all FAILED, and now Team 4 has to suffer for years on end due the executives hunger for money. If it no longer sells, they will abandon ship and seek other methods of gaining money. Money is the root of all evil.

[@matteorusso4001]

It could be summed up that Overwatch is one of the least exploited IPs in the industry and all the people behind the scenes had their part in making this happen.

[@sekcaJ]

5:26 No Freedo, DO THAT. That's the spice we're all here for!

[@ThisIsMyFullName]

A sad example of why it's so important to separate money and creativity. Both are important to a company like Blizzard, but it only works when they are in balance.

[@voltaiqmozaiq]

Glad to see you back, I was getting worried there for a while. Long-time enjoyer of your content.

[@NSeaBear]

So what's next for you? Overwatch is at the end of its life. Will you continue to cover it? Will you swap games? Loved your videos for as long as I played OW (bought the game day 1) thank you for all your videos!!

[@fractalelf7760]

@@NSeaBear LOL no it’s not…

[@gardamun]

Freedo, where are you buddy? We need you back more often. The output has really gone done and several key changes of come in with no comments from my favorite OW guy. I hope you're alright!

[@kevinhardy8997]

For me, it was Role Queue. I could play all night one game after another, then suddenly I have to wait 17 minutes?????

[@lordtrinen2249]

Working in the business world, I pay attention to news like this and it's tragically becoming all too common of a tale. I'm starting to wonder if Overwatch will survive long enough for the return of 6v6.

[@Jamble]

All they had to do was have an Overwatch team focused on updates and skins and lore and keep the hype alive, while another team built the PVE game... It couldve taken 10 years, as long as they kept people happy with skins, lores and new characters, everything wouldve been fine.

[@katsuneguidance]

how do you go from shipping soap in brazil to overseeing a video game company?? wtf😭😭

[@soyfya5396]

Pls interview Schreier on the channel I would LOVE to hear a conversation

[@Spanishflea.]

Glad to see youre making videos again dude.

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

This game has no future basically

[@IgorJCorrea]

But this is all from the past

[@VivoGamer20]

🤦🤦🤦

[@xlbthedemigod5662]

The micro transactions are not fair and there isn’t other ways to grind for alot of coins and credits

[@soapbiter36577]

The future is kiriko and juno skins

[@YourOnlyHero]

​@xlbthedemigod5662 no one saying you have to get them and it doesn't give any competitive advantage. If you want a skin, buy it, if don't then don't. Can't afford it? Then ok. Its not something needed

[@carl6969100]

Damn. I re-downloaded overwatch yesterday and after a could have matches, I realized why I stopped playing. I will always love when the game was fun.

[@think2086]

*As it pretty much always does, for-profit kills goodness. If only all organizations were non-profit.*

[@kingtaj772]

"'With great power there must ALSO COME great responsibility.' (No one gets that right.)" -- Peter Parker in Spider-Man (2016) #2

[@diegomaldonado7292]

This could literally be a one season Netflix show

[@FlibbleBeck]

Greed. It was always about greed. They were making more money than some countries and the only thing they ever asked was "how can we make more."

[@jmsether]

The CEOs will never see it as a failure on their part. They will see it as a failure on the IP's part as lost interest of the consumer. Treating it as EOL and move on to the next thing.

[@Jereonn]

You knew Freedo was gonna be returning after his month video-break after this news x)

[@nm3k511]

I wonder if this is what fate awaits for game companies that seek absolutes rather than compromises.

[@Dash3105]

Been a minute. Glad to see you're good.

[@TheBlackBantha]

Yea they should’ve had two separate teams working on 1 and 2 rather than just leaving OW1 high and dry. They also should’ve dropped OWL a long time ago considering how boring it was.

[@Xhisorz1]

I hope that game dev and animation becomes so easy that people are able to create something like overwatch. Have actual storytellers and world builders get empowered to build and create frictionless and not have a gaming company interfere.

[@ogbuddah4234]

Simply put they all greedy. Bobby was interested only on profit, Morhaim wanted to make good games and good money too, Jeff wanted to make a game the size of the 3 games, and in the middle there were us, and the underpaid overly exploited devs ( a constant trend in Blizzard for years)

[@Nà.jásh]

I’ll never forgive them for ruining this for us but also for getting rid of our papa Jeff. He was our Overwatch.🥺

[@user-xf4fe4eb3u]

I still think there are enough people who are invested in the characters and “story” of overwatch that they could still make a movie or series and it blow tf up. And then just maybe bring some people back to the game or get some to try it especially if it aired at the same time they put 6v6 back in the game as a new “classic” game mode.

[@kjak94]

Things do tend to go downhill when you get McKinsey suits in the room lmao

[@deanginsberg955]

If only overwatch 1 stayed exactly the way it was, I’d do anything to completely gut ow2 and all of its content just to have ow1 back the way it was. Perfection

[@Synphus]

This video hurts. It's kicking the corps (Overwatch) that I already buried and said goodbye to.😢

[@josephreynolds2401]

Aussie Drongo from AOE2 renown took the "Your Deadlock" Convention away freedo 😂😂😂. Hope to see you there.

[@Rob-147]

Thanks Bobby, you seriously did unrepairable damage to Blizzard. Congrats

[@realkorgo]

That's the problem, you can measure the customers you have but you can't measure the ones you never got because of your bad decisions. At least not without MASSIVE effort.

[@supersingular]

It happens with every company, the executives need to be deeply involved in the space otherwise they’ll lose touch with their customers. Regardless if the CFO had a Harvard degree, they were not gamers, and didn’t even noticed how bad they were messing up the game. The worst thing was launching Overwatch 2, that was ridiculous just for the sake of marketing. Now we’re stuck with a worst game.

[@mratlas3364]

This is an excellent example as to why you don’t put the finance clowns in charge of engineers and creatives. Growth at all costs

[@nickdicerbo6361]

Do a video on map pool pick rates and how new maps are biased towards while kings row is biased against

[@ebunny1652]

Great video Freedo. It's interesting to finally get some more info and context about this stuff, even if we already knew or suspected a lot of it. Based Jason Schreier honestly.

[@dliriumtrigger]

I must say: the intellectual prowess with low end criminals and corporate executives seem to be the same bracket. quite possibly similar to catching a bronze player in GM, because he contracted duo queues to get his rating up. and when he finally gets to GM, commits to solo queue and tries to survive with trial and error tactics of the blind variety... wait a minute..

[@edwinsteen2160]

This is one of the best videos you have ever made. Gratz

[@vegitohaze2081]

Crazy how as terrible as Kotcick was, he was still smarter than the entire OW team combined. He should have forcefully removed Jeff and co from OW1 and let them be the PvE only team.

[@aguywithadyna]

Great video as usual, can't wait to read the book myself when it comes out on oct 8.

[@Damien_Bathory]

they locked my account and asked me for phone numbers, bank statements, among other things... all I had was Overwatch, my response: BET. They are still waiting for my information...