Overwatch 2 players are banging their heads against a wall after finding out that Blizzard fumbled a Netflix adaptation
One, if not the, best parts of Overwatch has always been its animated shorts, whether that be for a hero release or even the rare story update. But fans have never been able to enjoy more than a fraction of its potential, and now we know why.
During an AMA with Jason Schreier in the run-up to his upcoming book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, one curious player asked the question many of us have been wondering about for a long time now: «Any insights into why Blizzard hasn't branched out into Movies/TV/animation?»
«The book reveals that they had series in development with Netflix for Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo,» Schreier says in reply. «But uh… 'Blizzard sues Netflix for poaching Spencer Neumann' (Blizzard's then CFO).»
Neumann was apparently in the middle of a fixed-term agreement with Activision Blizzard when Netflix courted him in 2018. Activision Blizzard ended up terminating his contract «for violating his legal obligations to the company,» Activision told investors—he had a «no shop» clause, which in this case prohibits a person from soliciting job proposals from other companies.
There's so much to Overwatch 2's story that could be explored, but it's all just left in limbo. Overwatch is kind of like an anti-story at this point. The plot can't progress—otherwise, we'd have no game because it all relies on heroes coming back together to face Talon and Null Sector. It took eight years for the heroes to actually respond to Winston's call to arms, which he made at the beginning of Overwatch in 2016. No one's also allowed to die or win—imagine Ana getting locked from play because she died from old age.
The only new story shreds we ever got were when a new hero joined the roster, which would explain more about the hero's backstory. Doomfist's animated short is still one of my all-time favourites despite only being two minutes long. It showcases everything that would make an Overwatch 2 animated series fantastic. The
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