"Overwatch was born out of the ashes of a previous [game]: this big MMO that we were developing called Project Titan. I think that when you go through a process like that, it's very difficult to do emotionally, but it also immediately instilled a culture of humility to the people that went through it. Even though we're working at one of the biggest game companies in the world, with such talented people, we put everything we could into something and it didn't make it."
Most Overwatch fans will know its origins by now: as the recycled product made from the scraps of Project Titan, an MMO that was abruptly cancelled by Blizzard after seven years in development. After this, the team was just given six weeks to come up with a new pitch, something that could rival the revenue brought in by Warcraft; that doesn't sound stressful at all.
But if there were a silver lining to this ridiculous crunch, it would be that it instilled resilience and humility into Team 4 from the start of Overwatch's life, according to Keller. This is something that has undoubtedly seen the team through a decade of Overwatch which has included some particularly rough patches, especially around Overwatch 2's inception.
Hard work and staying true to what made Overwatch so great to begin with was key to Team 4 getting the live-service game back on track over the last few years. And now, 10 years later, the team can be proud of the fact that Overwatch is in its best shape ever.
It also means that the team rarely gets too caught up in what the future holds. "It's really hard to predict 'Hey, 10 years out in the future, we'll still be working on this thing that we all enjoy and love today'," Keller adds. "But we're here now… We have big hopes and dreams of what Overwatch can be, and so even though I can't predict the future, I can't wait to see what Overwatch is like 10 years from now."
