Jeff Kaplan, the former boss of the Overwatch team, has some short and candid advice for people who complain about games they have not and will never play: “shut the f*** up.”
Speaking via a lengthy livestream, in which Kaplan showed off his work-in-progress new project The Legend of California, the ex-Blizzard leader said he did not understand those who complained about games they have no interest in enjoying for themselves.
“If a game comes out, and you don’t want to play it, and you’ve never played it? Shut the f*** up. No one cares.”
Jeff’s message to toxic gaming culture:
“If a game comes out and you don’t want to play it and you’ve never played it, shut the f*ck up. No one cares.”
“It’s not difficult to sh*t on something. Apparently, it takes a ton of courage to say ‘hey, I actually like this thing.'”… pic.twitter.com/eFXwzKLzFi
— Majid Manzarpour (@majidmanzarpour) March 15, 2026
“We don’t need to hear that you weren’t into it,” Kaplan continued. “What is with this, ‘Oh my God, I’m so upset they decided to make this game that I have no interest in?’ I’m not running to the internet every time there’s a TV show on… well, I’m not watching any TV shows, either, but like, who cares about my opinion if I’m not going to play it? And if I’ve never played it? Why does my opinion matter on that?
“If you play it — great! You have an informed opinion, and good for you,” he concluded. “But there needs to be a little more spread-the-love.”
Last week, Kaplan revealed why he left Blizzard after nearly 20 years with the company, pinning the blame on extreme financial pressures to deliver for Activision Blizzard, or be held personally responsible for a thousand people losing their jobs.
Kaplan publicly announced his departure from Blizzard in August 2021, with the controversial Overwatch 2 still in development, after almost two decades at the company. Indeed, Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002 where he started as a designer on World of Warcraft, developing quests for the then upcoming MMORPG. He eventually was credited as a game director on WoW. In 2009, Kaplan spearheaded an unannounced project at Blizzard named Titan, an ambitious new MMO that was eventually canceled in 2014 after tens of millions of dollars was spent on its development.
As for Overwatch itself? You’ll remember that Blizzard’s sequel unfortunately stumbled out of the gate, and while it saw a massive surge of players at the start, those numbers dropped in the following year. As time went on, user reviews complained about a number of issues such as monetization and controversies around the cancellation of the game’s long-awaited PvE Hero mode.
Now, however, fans are returning in their thousands with the advent of its new name and “story-driven era.” Last month’s launch of the first year-long storyline, The Reign of Talon, Overwatch — the game formerly known as Overwatch 2 — smashed its original concurrent Steam peak of 75,608, with SteamDB recording 165,651 concurrent Steam players, marking an excellent start for the rebooted hero shooter.
Kaplan is currently working on his new game, The Legend of California, an open world, action-survival shooter set within a fictional version of the US state during the gold rush era.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
