It's claimed that former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra wanted to bring about some massive changes to hero shooter Overwatch, as well as reduce microtransactions in action RPG Diablo 4 before his departure from the company earlier this year.
PC Gamer reports that in Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier's new book about Blizzard, it's mentioned in the final chapter that Ybarra was planning to "reboot Overwatch," which sounds like a pretty enormous deal. It's not clear what form this might have taken – after all, Overwatch 2 has only been out for two years (less than that when Ybarra was still at Blizzard), and it straight-up replaced its predecessor.
Attitudes about Overwatch 2 haven't always been, uh, fantastic since its launch – the hero shooter is still tarnished with a 'Mostly Negative' rating on Steam after a rough start last summer – so perhaps a reboot could have helped give it a fresh start?
Then there's Diablo 4, and Ybarra's supposed old plans to "cut down" on its microtransactions. It's fair to say that the action RPG has had its fair share of microtransaction-related controversy since its launch, mainly revolving around just how expensive some of them are. Back in February, players criticized the arrival of a $30 bundle which, as well as including $10-worth of Platinum (in-game currency), offered a selection of portal recolors. That's a lot of money for some fresh colors, and although this came after Ybarra had already left the company, perhaps it was these sorts of things he apparently wanted to change?
Anyway, if these plans were real, Ybarra never saw them happen, as he left the company back in January this year at the same time as an enormous wave of Microsoft Gaming layoffs. Whether anyone else at Blizzard could be thinking of taking them on in his stead or if they'll just be lost for good is another matter, but it's certainly strange to imagine what apparently could have become of two of Blizzard's heaviest hitters.
