Overwatch Lead Designer Steps Down
It’s sad to announce that Geoff Goodman reportedly made the decision to leave Blizzard earlier this year, according to a spokesperson from Blizzard Inc. The last we’d seen of Goodman was in a group interview with the press back in June. But it’s not like Blizzard didn’t notice or pay tribute to Goodman when he finally left Blizzard and the magnanimous game that he helped create. The company paid their goodbyes to Geoff with one final statement. Geoff Goodman has had a really long run with Blizzard. He was working on Overwatch long before the game even debuted as Overwatch. Back then, the team had its hands busy with the game when it was formerly known as Project Titan. As we all know, Titan was later cancelled, and it was later resurrected into the team-based hero shooter that would later launch in 2016 and pretty much take the gaming industry, media news outlets, social media sites and the whole internet by storm. Overwatch’s hype didn’t last, but it was pretty impactful, to say the least. Outside of the game’s former director Jeff Kaplan, who sadly left Blizzard in 2021, Goodman was one of the few faces of Overwatch, who frequently made sure to interact with the community and discuss balance changes and new heroes whenever interviews and events took place. Goodman was also responsible for some of the major reworks that helped fix Orisa and Doomfist and helped create new heroes, the likes of Sojourn and Junker Queen. It’s likely that Goodman also played his part in formulating the new support hero Kiriko. Although there was no apparent reason as to why Geoff Goodman left Blizzard, this departure comes after a series of high-profile Blizzard departures that took place in the aftermath of a lawsuit that was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for workplace harassment and discrimination last year. The Executive Producer of Overwatch, Chacko Sonny, followed suit and left the company back in 2021, along with producer Tracy Kennedy who left last September. Concerning the turmoil over at Blizzard, Goodman answered in a group interview and stated that the team had made sure that everyone was in a good spot and felt safe before they resumed their work on the game. Overwatch 2 will be coming soon with a free-to-play model, but players are still wondering what will change in the second instalment of the game. The option of loot boxes has been removed and has been replaced with a seasonal battle pass model, and new heroes will be unlocked via the battle pass. Overwatch 2 will launch and replace the original Overwatch on October 4 and will release for Windows PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PS5. So, what do you think about the core developers of Overwatch leaving Blizzard with the imminent release of Overwatch 2? Why’d they left the company in the first place? So many questions, so many questions that will be left unanswered. But you can still share your views in the comments below. We upload daily on Appuals, so stay tuned for more. Till then, see you later and goodbye.
