Blizzard dev: ‘After Titan’s horrific failure, Overwatch was our last chance’

The designer of Blizzard’s team-based shooter Overwatch has said that he saw the project as a make-or-break moment for the team.

Speaking to GameSpot, Jeff Kaplan revealed the fallout from the collapse of MMO Titan, which was cancelled in 2014 after seven years in development.

"You had a really amazing group that was working on Titan,” he said. "They were really talented individuals, but we failed horrifically in every way that a project can fail. It was devastating.”

Overwatch rose from the ashes of Titan, with some of the scrapped title’s assets being reused in the game.

"Nobody said a word, everyone was super supportive, but I think there was this inward embarrassment of, like: ‘No, we need to prove that we’re worthy of being at Blizzard too – we can make something that makes the company proud’,” Kaplan continued.

"We saw it as a last chance. We use the phrase ‘You’re only as good as your last game’ often, so you don’t get big-headed – my most recent game was an utter failure called Titan that got cancelled.

“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."