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Jeff Kaplan Doesn't Engage With Overwatch After Leaving Blizzard: ‘I’ve Literally Not Played The Game Since April 2021’
The original director of the hero shooter is now working on a western game called The Legend of California
Ubisoft plans cuts at German studios, adding to wave of workforce reductions
Ubisoft is planning to reduce its workforce in Germany, where it operates a trio of studios, by about 100 workers, Game File has learned. The company wants to offer employees buyouts to, should enough people accept, avoid having to lay anyone off. “In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz,” a company rep told Game File. A “works council” is a union-like group representing employees. “The voluntary plan is the primary measure being proposed to support the intended organizational changes,” the Ubisoft rep added. The company declined to confirm the scale of the potential headcount cut. Of the impacted studios, Mainz might be the best known to the public. It leads development of the Anno series and shipped the well-reviewed strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana in November 2025. Berlin and Dusseldorf operate as support studios within Ubisoft’s creative network. Berlin recently supported the development of Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake. Dusseldorf also contributed to those projects, as well as The Settlers and Ubisoft-branded escape rooms. Dusseldorf is the biggest of the three studios, with some 400+ workers, compared to just over 100 at the other two, a source familiar with the reductions and the teams told Game File. More than half of these new reductions of about 100 people are expected to happen at Dusseldorf. The planned cuts were announced at a town hall for the German studios on Tuesday of last week. In an email follow-up, the studio group’s managing director, Benedikt Grindel, said the cuts were intended to “best position our German studios for the future... with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities and organizational setup needed for the work ahead.” The email was an echo of the past. In January 2025, Grindel had emailed the Ubisoft developers in his region (or studio “zone”) to explain that a round of 185 cuts at the time, including about 65 at Dusseldorf, were “essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.” A half-decade of continued job cuts Ubisoft has been aggressively cutting its headcount for years. At the end of September 2022, it had 20,729 workers. By the end of March 2026, that total was down to 16,590. Studio management is trying to trim costs as it grapples with a changing industry and a drought of releases, let alone hits. The company announced earlier this year that it had reduced its costs since 2022 by “nearly €325 million” ($362m) and planned to lower them through 2028 by another €180 million ($200m). In June the company said it was closing down its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cutting roles in its Barcelona team. Even commercial and creative success hasn’t spared studios from this ongoing company-wide contraction. As Game File was nailing down details around the proposed cuts in Germany, Ubisoft management was informing workers of cuts in its Singapore studio, which shipped a hit remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag this past July. Some 70 positions in Singapore are being eliminated “to align the studio with upcoming production needs,” per a company rep’s statement to Game File. In early 2024, a large team in the Singapore studio launched the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones. It performed poorly but has been supported with regular content updates since. Many of Ubisoft’s studios around the world are heavily subsidized via regional grants and tax breaks. Singapore had been among them for years, but received no such local assistance in the 12 months ending this past March. News of the Singapore cuts broke today alongside word that Ubisoft is also proposing the closure of RedLynx, pending negotiations with officials. The Finnish studio behind the motorbike series Trials was founded in 2000 and sold to Ubisoft in 2011. As reported by VGC (and corroborated by Game File), Ubisoft management told employees it could not come up with a new, sustainable assignment for RedLynx. The 2025 workforce at Ubisoft Dusseldorf were straight-up cuts. This time, Ubisoft is hoping the reductions at its trio of German studios will largely come from workers taking a payout to leave. The company offered such voluntary dismissals at its Massive Entertainment studio (The Division) a year ago. For the German studios’ buyouts this time around, Ubisoft and the Works Council had discussed a formula that’d pay a worker’s monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years they’ve worked at the company, according to Game File sources. The formula is still subject to negotiations with the Works Council and has not yet been part of an official offer to workers. It could be adjusted up or down, and it could be supplemented with additional bonuses. Asked about the floated payout formula, a Ubisoft rep told Game File, “The terms of a potential voluntary departure program remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives. No final agreement has been reached, and we won’t comment on specific proposals while discussions are ongoing.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Epic’s AI adventures Epic Games (Fortnite, the Unreal engine) is all-in on using AI to try to transform the way it makes video games and game-making tools. It’s leaders appear to be undeterred by any resistance among gamers and some game developers around generative AI—and instead emboldened by advances, particularly in AI-assisted programming. A recap of the last three days: On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Epic management told workers last week that development of an upcoming game combining Star Wars and Marvel characters would be “AI first.” Employees would be expected to use AI models such as Claude to code the game. A manager told Epic’s developers there would be “[n]o more hand-written code” and that art for the game would be “generated with full AI workflows,” per the outlet. Just ahead of that story running, Epic founder Tim Sweeney tweeted: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.” In a follow-up, Sweeney predicted that most game development processes would be at least three times faster a year from now than they were in January 2026, thanks to AI. To a person on X who told him he was failing to read the room, Sweeney said: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be.” On Wednesday, Epic announced it was releasing a faster launcher for its Epic Games Store marketplace. It did so by stating in a blog post as clear as could be that the launcher is an AI-enabled, vibe-coded project: Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. Programming is hard? That was unexpected phrasing from a company founded by a legendarily great programmer. Back in 2011, Sweeney told me that he’d picked up programming quickly as a kid and rejoiced at the power it gave him. “I could look at any program that anybody else had written and, with enough effort, build something cooler.” Item 3: The Xbox Labs experiment (and one of the people behind it) Microsoft’s Xbox division, which is flooding the zone with announcements lately, yesterday revealed a new internal tech-tinkering team called Xbox Labs. In the words of Xbox boss Asha Sharma Labs is “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.” Conventional wisdom coming out of the announcement is that Labs is a team that’ll focus on ideas driven by generative AI. In her announcement, Sharma cited some of the dizzying achievements in tech and gaming over the past month as AI agents and other AI tools have been deployed to swiftly figure out how popular games work, then rebuild them and mix them up. She mentioned seeing ”games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support” and said “[p]erhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.” (Minecraft plus Elden Ring, for example, or Fortnite + Super Monkey Ball + Overwatch + Diablo + others.) Sharma also cited the work of Windows PC games being ported to run in browsers, a seeming reference to a recent AI-assisted fan port of Halo. Or perhaps Call of Duty or GTA. Sharma didn’t use the specific term “AI” in her memo, but she came close, citing AI “agents” and their potential for game-making tools that Labs could help craft: I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. When I asked an Xbox rep if Labs was an AI-centric team, they said genAI was not the focus, describing it as having a broader mandate for using new tech in new ways in gaming. As an example, they pointed to Xbox’s recently launched disc-to-digital gaming usage rights program. Microsoft didn’t specifically name anyone involved full-time in Xbox Labs yesterday, but on social media and LinkedIn, I spotted Adrian Mato IDing himself as leading the creatio of tools at Labs and talking up the launch. Mato first caught my attention in late September, when he said on X that he was “starting to build a new team at Xbox focused on products and tools for how games get built and distributed as agentic tools become more capable.” At the time, he framed AI-based tools as a supplement to traditional game dev tools. “I don’t think we need to replace them,” he said. Since then, he’s publicly shown interest in AI and in games. He’s recently spent some of his X feed marveling at the power of AI agents and praising the lighting in the latest Gears of War. Following the Labs announcement yesterday, he enthused about the Xbox Labs’ stylish landing page. He wrote: “We built some fun tools to art-direct shaders in real time, experimented with interactive ASCII art, and sprinkled in lots of tiny details. “Move your mouse to leave a colorful trail that reveals the original footage, or interact with the video to trigger bursts of particles. “A lot of love went into making it all feel just right. “More to come”
Overwatch Season 5 skins and Mythics Revealed by Blizzard
Get ready for a spooky season in Overwatch
Overwatch’s Latest China Exclusive Has Fans Ready To Crash Out: ‘I Still Don’t Know How People Defend Blizzard For This’
Shion, Kiriko, Reaper, and more are the latest heroes to reap the benefits of Blizzard and NetEase’s partnership, but only in China
BlizzCon 2026 Debuts Halftime Show With YOASOBI
The J-pop duo electrified the Overwatch World Cup as Simu Liu, T-Pain, deadmau5 and more joined Blizzard's long-awaited return to Anaheim.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Is Overwatch's Next Big Anime Collaboration
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will also come to Battle.net later this year
Overwatch Announces What's Next As It Reaches The End Of Its First Year-Long Story Arc
A new hero, map and more is on the way!
Overwatch Reveals First Look at New Omnic Hero Coming Later This Year
Blizzard has teased another new Overwatch Hero after revealing Doctrine just moments ago.
Overwatch's Next Hero, Doctrine, Officially Revealed at BlizzCon 2026
Doctrine comes to Overwatch alongside a new map at the start of Season 5
Overwatch Announces 2 Hero Reworks At BlizzCon 2026
Overwatch reworks Sombra and Roadhog in Season 5, as Sombra becomes a Support hero and Roadhog gains a more team-focused Tank role.
BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony live report - all the news and announcements as Blizzard's convention returns
BlizzCon returns with rumours of a new StarCraft game, Diablo 4 on Switch 2, WoW Classic Plus, a major new Overwatch update, and more.
Almost 1,900 Blizzard workers ratify first union contract with Microsoft
Blizzard Entertainment has secured a first union contract with parent company Microsoft, ratified by a workforce vote c…
BlizzCon 2026 preview: Speculation, hopes, dreams — what to expect for Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and even more surprises
BlizzCon 2026 is shaping up to be incredibly special this year, with a huge amount of panels, unexpected surprises, alongside some perhaps a-little-more-expected surprises.
'Overwatch' Won't Get Its Most Exciting New Feature In Years Until Next Season
Blizzard delayed adding Unvaulted Passes to Overwatch until the start of Season 5
Overwatch Battle Pass Revamp Is Helping With The FOMO
The game’s shift to a Battle Pass structure in 2022 has made it difficult to get cosmetics if you’re not playing consistently each season
Blizzard Reportedly Leads Xbox as 'Top-Performing' Studio Thanks to Overwatch and Diablo
Blizzard Entertainment is reportedly Microsoft's golden child after Overwatch and Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred helped it become the "top-performing" Xbox studio.
Blizzard is now the "top performing" Xbox studio, says internal emails — as the Overwatch-maker ends FY26 over-delivering on Microsoft's projections
In leaked emails verified by Windows Central, Blizzard President Johanna Faries celebrated the Xbox division's stunning growth, over-delivering on expectations.
Overwatch’s New Mech Hero, D.Mon, Isn’t ‘D.Va 2.0,’ Blizzard Says
D.Mon is meant to be the ‘icy, cool, and very confident’ leader to D.Va’s more aggressive, dive-based playstyle
Blizzard Officially Reveals Overwatch's Newest Hero, D.Mon, with First Gameplay
D.Mon joins D.Va on D.Roster of Overwatch
Overwatch D.Mon interview: Building D.Mon's kit, personality, and mecha fantasy
We interviewed Team 4 about everything D.Mon!
Overwatch's Mech Designers Must Really Want D.Mon To Die, Huh?
I mean why else would they have her whole ass exposed like that?
Overwatch Ends Updates For Its Coolest Mode After Player Drop-Off
The Stadium mode is one of the best things Blizzard has done with the game, but not enough people are playing it
Overwatch Fans Revolt Over New Skins That Cost Too Damn Much
The new ‘Ultra’ skins include visual and audio effects, but is that enough?
Overwatch's Pride Event Broke My Heart Then Mended It
Lifeweaver lore is always welcome, even if it kills a years-long dream
Overwatch Lead Is Glad People Were Mad They Killed Off Doomfist
Doomfist was ‘defeated’ at the beginning of the year
Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred will release earlier than expected in the US, and teams up with Overwatch for some of the coolest skins I've ever seen
The Diablo 4 developer chat just dropped a bunch of new info, Overwatch Skins, Twitch Drops, and a bucket of updates with Patch 3.0.0
Overwatch Is Making Good On A Decade-Old Promise
The hero shooter’s reboot is getting one thing right
Overwatch’s New Hero Is So Strong She Kills Most Heroes Instantly
Sierra’s ultimate probably needs a nerf or two
Overwatch's Switch 2 version is currently missing the promised 60 FPS boost, but a fix is coming soon
The long-awaited Nintendo Switch 2 port of Overwatch is missing its 60 FPS boost despite it being at the centre of the announcement.
Overwatch launches on Nintendo Switch 2 with performance issues, Blizzard confirms patch in the works
Overwatch just launched on Nintendo Switch 2 today, but things haven’t gone smoothly. Soon after release, players reported issues with the port – notably with performance. Blizzard promised that the new Nintendo Switch 2 version would run up to 60 frames per second. However, some fans thought that the Nintendo Switch 1 version was accidentally uploaded since the action felt...
Overwatch's Next Season Looks Dope Except For One Thing
Season 2 adds Sierra to the roster, but also gives some spotlight to Soldier: 76
Overwatch out on Nintendo Switch 2 tomorrow, up to 60 FPS and more
We have an update on Overwatch (previously known as Overwatch 2), as Blizzard just confirmed the release date for the Nintendo Switch 2 version. As it turns out, it’ll be out tomorrow. One of the highlights of Overwatch on Nintendo Switch 2 is support for up to 60 frames per second for both docked and handheld play. Blizzard says the...
Reach Heroic Heights in Reign of Talon
The climb continues as a new Hero rises and the fight for a better future pushes Overwatch higher than ever.
Overwatch’s Next Hero Isn’t Who Fans Thought She Was
The game’s 51st hero looked a lot like a character from the novels
Blizzard reveals Overwatch hero Anran's new "fiery and fierce" look, following player backlash over 'same-face syndrome'
Following player complaints over Anran's "baby face", Overwatch developer Blizzard Entertainment has reworked her look.
Overwatch's Anran redesign is a massive improvement from Blizzard
Though it still features an 'Ozempic chic' nose
Overwatch Reveals The Anran Redesign Fans Begged For
The character looked more like Kiriko and Juno than her brother Wuyang
Overwatch April Fools’ Event Throws Balance Out Again
The ‘Underwatch’ mode turns a bunch of knobs and switches to create chaos
Blizzard Drops New Overwatch: Undivided WEBTOON With Major Story Lore Expansion
Blizzard has revealed Overwatch: Undivided, a new WEBTOON expanding the game’s story, with Episodes 1–3 available to read now for free.
Blizzard Entertainment® and NEXON® Enter Publishing Agreement for Overwatch® in Korea
Operations are planned to b4egin later this year, more details around publishing to come.
Former Overwatch Lead claims he was given a horrid ultimatum: meet revenue goals or 1,000 developers would lose jobs
In at interview with Lex Fridman, former Overwatch lead Jeff Kaplan claims he was told to hit revenue targets or 1,000 developers would lose their jobs.
Former Overwatch Director Breaks Silence About Sudden Departure From Blizzard
"I literally thought I'd retire from the place"
Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Explains Why He Left Blizzard
He says the pressure kept ratcheting up to deliver more and more profits
Overwatch: Rush Preview - Blizzard's First-Person Hero Shooter Goes Top-Down
Overwatch: Rush is a twin-stick shooter designed for mobile.
Blizzard Plans: Updates on Diablo, Wow, Overwatch, Johanna Faries
Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries reveals 35th anniversary plans across "Diablo," "World of Warcraft," "Overwatch" and more.
Overwatch's new "story-driven era" launch doubles release day concurrent record on Steam
The resource for people who make and sell games.
‘Overwatch’ Actor Supports A Redesign Of Her Own Character, Anran
The voice actress of Anran, Overwatch's new hero, is going on the record supporting fans' idea that she should be redesigned.
Overwatch Actor Supports Fan Campaign To Redesign Her Character
Fans are begging Blizzard to change Anran’s face back to what it used to look like
'Overwatch' just hit its highest player base on Steam PC since launch — passing Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty
All it needed was a flying kitty. Overwatch is so back, as the kids say.
Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo studio Blizzard Entertainment hits 35 years old — marks its first milestone under Microsoft Gaming
Legendary gaming firm cut its teeth with SNES and Genesis ports in the early 90s, but its legacy was locked in by three era‑defining originals that arrived between 1994 and 98.
Controversial new Overwatch character design has fans seeing double
Some prefer the fan art and want Anran to be redesigned.
Overwatch's New Season 1 Is What the Game Was Always Meant to Be
A commitment to an ongoing story and more frequent new heroes, including five right now, move the game in the direction it always seemed to promise.
Meow! Mass Effect's Commander Shepard actor Jennifer Hale is the mewling voice of Overwatch's ridiculous new hero Jetpack Cat
And there's a concept floating around for a character called "Oranga-tank".
Overwatch will drop the '2' as Jetpack Cat and four other heroes arrive on February 10
Five additional heroes and a Nintendo Switch 2 port are among the many things Blizzard has planned for the game in 2026.
Blizzard unveils a major Overwatch 2 revamp, renaming it to just Overwatch and announcing ambitious, imminent expansion plan
Five new heroes arrive at once, and then a further five this year. That's 10 new heroes in total this year.
Overwatch Spotlight: The Reign of Talon Begins
Welcome to a new era. Follow the first fully-connected narrative arc in Overwatch history, play five new Heroes in Season 1, and enjoy expansive gameplay updates when Vendetta’s reign begins on Feb. 10.
Overwatch 2 Is Ditching the '2' Amid Launch of 'New, Story-Driven Era' With 10 New Heroes
Overwatch 2 is officially ditching the "2" from its name. It's all just Overwatch now as the game enters a "new, story-driven era" with a year-long narrative, 10 new heroes, and a major overhaul.
Overwatch 2 Is Just "Overwatch" Again And Five New Heroes Arrive Next Week
What's old is new again.
‘Highguard’: Wildlight Founders on How Their Debut Game Is Not Like ‘Concord’ or ‘Overwatch’
As "Highguard" is released, founders at game studio Wildlight address comparisons to "Overwatch" and the now-canceled "Concord."
Overwatch 2 Commits Its Greatest Sin Yet
The Fortnite-ification of Blizzard’s hero shooter just hit a new low