OVERWATCH: Failed MMO turned Superhero Shooter | Development LORE | The Making of Overwatch | LORE
5,466Jake “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.
Subscribe to LORE: http://bit.ly/LoreSubscribe
Hey guys! We're trying out a longer-running show for this episode because we think some IPs definitely deserve more than a minute.
Should we dive even deeper, or keep it to a minute? Let us know what you think!
Follow Lore on Twitter @LoreInAMinute
Watch Overwatch Lore here: http://bit.ly/1s7F6l0
Written by Gainesaurus:
https://twitter.com/Gainesaurus
Voiced by Jake ‘The Voice’ Parr:
http://jakeparrthevoice.weebly.com/
Animated by digsBot:
https://www.youtube.com/user/digsBot
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!
About LORE in a Minute!:
LORE is your one-stop shop for the history, plot, backstory -- you name it -- of your favorite franchises from video games and anime to comics and movies, and more. LORE pairs your favorite YouTubers like Dodger, Octopimp, Comicstorian, Stampy, Ricepirate, and Markiplier with talented animators all over the world.
Find out the top facts and Easter eggs of games like Fallout 4, Overwatch, Gears of War, Dark Souls all the way to classics like Pokemon, Elder Scrolls, Mario, Bioshock, Half-Life, and Zelda. We also cover movies, comics, cartoons, anime, and TV shows, so be sure to check out our library for Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Batman, Avengers, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and more!
---------
Polaris Animated Universe: http://bit.ly/1P77c59
Lore! http://bit.ly/nNfsws
---------
Thanks for watching Lore!
Other Videos By LORE
Other Statistics
Overwatch Statistics For LORE
LORE currently has 583,759 views spread across 2 videos for Overwatch. Less than an hour worth of Overwatch videos were uploaded to his channel, less than 0.55% of the total video content that LORE has uploaded to YouTube.