Former Blizzard designer Jeff Kaplan described the cancelled MMO Titan as a major failure on the Lex Fridman podcast. He highlighted its chaotic development, lack of cohesion, and Blizzard's hubris after World of Warcraft's success. Kaplan warned executives to shut it down years before its cancellation.
Jeff Kaplan, known for leading Overwatch at Blizzard, shared details on the studio's ambitious but failed project Titan during an appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast. Development began in late 2005 or early 2006, amid fears that World of Warcraft's success would not endure beyond five years. A team under Rob Pardo gathered ideas for a massively multiplayer online game set on a future Earth, where players acted as secret agents by night with over-the-top FPS abilities and managed day jobs influenced by games like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and The Sims. Blizzard hired former Sims creative director Matt Brown for the project, which envisioned building houses in neighbourhoods, GTA-style driving, a massive world including Bay City (like San Francisco), Hollywood, California, Cairo, and London, and all players on one gigantic server using a new engine and IP. Debates raged over elements like aliens, reflecting broader uncertainties. Kaplan called it 'the hubris of Blizzard,' a 'disaster' with failures in art, engineering, and design due to lack of cohesion. 'That was one of the most painful development processes that I've ever been a part of,' he said. By 2009, Kaplan believed it could not ship; in 2010, he told CEO Mike Morhaime, 'You've got to shut us down; we're just going to burn money.' The project ended in 2013, with formal cancellation in 2014 costing around $83m. Jason Schreier's book Play Nice detailed clashing visions: Pardo's secret agent concept versus Chris Metzen's superhero ideas, leading to chaos. Elements salvaged contributed to Overwatch, which Kaplan developed afterward. Kaplan acknowledged leadership failures, including his own, for scaling up prematurely without proving the concept cheaply. Recently, Kaplan announced Kintsugiyama studio and The Legend of California, published by Mike Morhaime's Dreamhaven.
