Overwatchlead writer Michael Chu announces that he is leaving Blizzard Entertainment after spending 20 years at the company. Chu’s decision to leave the developer comes ahead of the release ofOverwatch 2, which is set to have story missionsand more player versus environment gameplay.
On Twitter, Chu announced that after spending 20 years at Blizzard, he will be moving on to “new adventures.” Chu has written a longer letter about leaving Blizzard on his site, saying that when he started, his “only dream was to help make the games I had spent countless hours of my life playing.” The writer, who is Asian-American, “wanted to experience narratives that represented people like me and to see them depicted as heroes” and Chu’s work onOverwatchallowed him to do that.
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Chu also said that “I believed that a game could show the power of diversity and that one kiss could change the world, if only a little.” When Chu talks about “one kiss,” he may be talking about theOverwatchholiday comic where Tracer kisses her girlfriend, confirming that she is a lesbian and making her the game’s first openly LGBTQ character. The comic wasn’t released in some countries such as Russia, which has an anti-LGBTQ “propaganda” law, but many lesbians were glad to see themselves represented in the game. There are few other lesbian characters as prominent as Tracer.
The game’s secondconfirmed LGBTQ character is Soldier: 76, who was revealed to be gay in anOverwatchshort story. Some weren’t happy about the reveal but there were many LGBTQ people and allies who were excited that another ofOverwatch’s most popular playable characters had come out.
Chu may be leaving Blizzard but it seems unlikely that theOverwatchteam’s feelings about diversity will change much with the writer gone. Game directorJeff Kaplan has also given his support to diversity and inclusivityin games, suggesting that the development team will carry on carrying the baton.
It also seems unlikely that Chu’s departure will have much of an affect onOverwatch 2. TheOverwatch 2release dateis rumored to be in 2020 which means that Chu’s work on the game and its new story missions may have been completed months ago. Chu is also one of several talented writers on the game’s development team and they will be able to keep writing incredible things without him.
Overwatch 2is in development for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
