Lead Overwatch writer Michael Chu announced Wednesday that after 20 years with Blizzard Entertainment he is leaving the company.
During his time with Blizzard Chu contributed to several Diablo games and multiple World of Warcraft expansions, before joining the Overwatch team as Lead Writer in 2014. As Overwatch Lead Writer Chu directed the game’s primary story and also penned a number of short stories and comics for several Overwatch’s characters that significantly helped flesh out their backgrounds, lore, and the game’s at-large universe. Chu was actively working on the upcoming Overwatch 2 sequel before his departure.
“Overwatch has been a life-changing experience,” Chu wrote in his departure letter that he shared on Twitter. “I have always felt that games and the stories they tell have the unique ability to bring people closer together, and that the empathy you feel from stepping into someone else’s shoes, even virtually, can bridge the gap between miles, cultures, and nations. Overwatch and its consistently generous and inspiring community have only reinforced that belief. I’ve heard stories of people learning a new language after hearing a line of dialogue, people feeling inspired to take a trip to a new place after ‘visiting’ it in-game, and people meeting teammates across languages and borders to take up the cause of making our world a better place. But most of all: again and again, of people empathizing with a story about someone who is not the same as them.”
Twenty years after first walking through the doors at Blizzard, I’m moving on to new adventures! Overwatch has been an amazing experience and one that I will treasure forever. Thank you to everyone for your support over the years! https://t.co/rG4zPe9SGC
— Michael Chu (@westofhouse) March 11, 2020
It’s unclear if Chu’s departure will impact Overwatch 2’s release date which is rumored to be sometime in 2020. Earlier this year in a post that’s since been deleted, PlayStation’s Brazilian Twitter account revealed that the game was slated for a 2020 release. Overwatch 2 will feature a new story-driven campaign that is much more focused on lore than the original game was.
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