Overwatch 2 Collaborations Were About Sharing Passion, Says Game’s Executive Producer
According to Overwatch 2’s executive producer, Jared Neuss, the recent collaborations with anime One Punch Man and Kpop group Le Sserafim were not solely intended to attract more players to the game. Instead, they were an opportunity for the developers to share their love for these collaborations with the existing Overwatch 2 fanbase.
In an interview with TRG at Blizzcon 2023, Neuss explained, “What’s funny is I haven’t really thought about these collaborations in terms of widening the audience. I assume it does that a bit for folks who have love for the thing that we’re collaborating with.”
Neuss continued, “I really look at it as sort of like a love letter from the team to our players about these things that we’re passionate about, right? Like, One Punch Man was something that the team was absolutely out of their minds about, they were so excited to release it and get in front of players. With Le Sserafim, we have a ton of Kpop fans and this is something that they really wanted to get out into the world.”
He emphasized, “For me, it’s less about how do we bring in an audience that loves this thing and more about: ‘how do we express our love for a thing, knowing that our love is mirrored by a lot of our players?'” Neuss expressed the hope that these collaborations would allow players to share in the team’s enthusiasm.
Future Collaborations and Crossing Over with Other Worlds
Looking ahead, Neuss revealed that future collaborations for Overwatch would involve crossing over with properties and things that the team loves. He stated, “A lot of the stuff that we have lined up I know is going to be exciting for folks.”
Furthermore, Neuss expressed personal excitement about the idea of crossing over with other video game worlds. “My passion is really around these different worlds that teams create, and so I would love for us to do game collaborations in the future,” he said.
Overwatch 2 is developed by Blizzard Interactive, a subsidiary of Activision-Blizzard King, which was acquired by Microsoft in October this year. Neuss mentioned that while they already collaborate with other Blizzard titles, he would love to see collaborations with games outside of Blizzard as well, such as Bethesda’s Fallout, Doom, and Wolfenstein series.