Former Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said he has not touched the popular team-shooter in five years for the sake of his mental health. During his time with Blizzard as the company's vice president, Kaplan was an instrumental figure across both Overwatch and World of Warcraft during the foundational years for both games.

Kaplan got his start at Blizzard in 2002 as a tester for Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos. He was then placed on the World of Warcraft development team as a designer before becoming the game's director during 2008's Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Kaplan was later moved over to Project Titan, a canceled game that saw some elements utilized for Overwatch. Prior to the game's relaunch as Overwatch 2, Kaplan left Blizzard in April 2021. The last Hero that was released under Kaplan's watch was Echo in April 2020.

After almost 20 years, a major chapter of World of Warcraft suddenly comes to an end.

Although Overwatch has released new Heroes such as Doctrine since Kaplan left the Irvine-based studio, the game's former lead said that he was not familiar with the state of the game. In an October 14 interview with GameSpot , Kaplan said that he has not followed Blizzard's hero shooter at all following his departure from Blizzard after a career that spanned over two decades. The ex-director said that his relationship with Overwatch is a "clinical separation" that was done for his own mental health. Kaplan refuses to read any posts on social media about the game, view any news that Blizzard puts out about the game, or even look up his own name in relation to the series.

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