OVERWATCH: Failed MMO turned Superhero Shooter | Development LORE | The Making of Overwatch | LORE

Jake “The Voice” Parr takes you behind the scenes of developing Overwatch and how Blizzard made their first first-person-shooter from the ashes of their cancelled MMO, Titan.
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Written by Gainesaurus:
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Voiced by Jake ‘The Voice’ Parr:
http://jakeparrthevoice.weebly.com/

Animated by digsBot:
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Transcript:

After MMO juggernaut, World of WarCraft rocked the gaming world, the confidence at Blizzard runneth over. Remembering the joy in building Azeroth and overlooking the struggles, the devs were confident they could go bigger. In 2007, they posted jobs for their Next Gen MMO and World of WarCraft director, Jeff Kaplin, even jumped to the new Project Titan. Set to be larger than the World of WarCraft, the designers dove in, eager to put their mark on Blizzard's first new IP in 17 years, but as Chris Metzen recalls, the connectivity wasn't there. Over 100 people worked on Titan, but everyone worked on their own piece of the game and the project as a whole suffered.

After 7 years of development, Blizzard reassigned all but 30 employees to other projects. The skeleton crew was tasked with retooling the now-cancelled project. Embarrassed and humbled, the team was supported by Blizzard coworkers, but the success of games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm was only a reminder of their recent failure. They needed redemption, they needed to dedicate the next five years to a game they would enjoy.

So the team reminisced about the games that inspired them to pursue careers in the industry. For most of them, these were the first person shooters of the 90's. Many had been in the modding community on Action Quake, Half-Life, and designers Scott Mercer and Geoff Goodman were even in a Team Fortress clan before they ever met in person. As they shared their experiences, they knew their next title should encompass everything they loved about 90's shooters and Overwatch was born.

But how would they expand on a genre with classic titles like Doom and Call of Duty? Kaplin knew the genre was trending toward gritty realism and modern military so the team collaborated to create over-the-top heroes like a Zen Robot and an intelligent gorilla, each with unique abilities citing the grapple hook from Quake 2 as inspiration for Overwatch's sniper, Widow Maker. The team also drew inspiration from the growing popularity of MOBAs in which team strategy was paramount. With this in mind, the heroes of Overwatch were separated into four classes (Offense, Defense, Tank and Support) to promote the team dynamic.

Finally, after keeping Overwatch under wraps, it was time to announce their new IP at BlizzCon2014. With an outcry of public support and a front row of emotional developers, it was clear that Titan was behind them. In nearly two years since, we've seen prequel comics, a popular beta, and even talks of Overwatch e-sports. So grab some friends, choose your outrageous character, and see why failure is often the first step towards greatness.

Have fun!

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