Overwatch, Blizzard’s hot new multiplayer shooter set to roll into the public’s grabby hands next month, wasn’t always such a hot ticket.
Need a refresher on Blizzard’s latest? Here’s a comprehensive guide to Overwatch.
As Jeff Kaplan explained in a video made by GameSpot (watch it, it is honestly very good) the game sprang from the ashes of the Warcraft developer’s canned MMO ‘Titan’.
“You had a really amazing group that was working on Titan,” Kaplan told GameSpot’s Danny O’Dwyer. “They were really talented individuals, but we failed horrifically in every way … In every way that a project can fail. It was devastating.”
The game director for Overwatch went on to explain that the pressure mounted on the team by virtue of the success of everything else Blizzard touched, and the people on Titan just weren’t used to failure.
“Having that level of confidence shattered is shocking. But in a weird way, it was the most bonding moment for this group,” Kaplan said. “So when it came to move to Overwatch there was an extremely tight bond on the team and a ravenous hunger to show the world that we’re not failures and we can make something really fun.”
Early reports, from ourselves and others lucky enough to make it into the game’s closed beta, suggest they’ve bounced back from such a devastating low. The rest of the world can judge for themselves on May 24 when Overwatch releases worldwide.