Director Jeff Kaplan Discusses The Challenges Of Making Overwatch For The Switch

This article is over 7 years old and may contain outdated information

Recommended Videos

Last month, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan mentioned that Blizzard was open to the possibility of bringing the popular first-person shooter to the Nintendo Switch, though the task would be “very challenging.” Now, Express had the chance to talk to Kaplan a bit more about the possibility of a Switch version.

 

First off, Kaplan noted the difficulty of maintaining the game on three platforms while patching simultaneously.

 

“Our first couple of patches would come out on PC first and then later on the consoles. And a lot of that is because you’re working with Microsoft and Sony, and you want to be compliant to their ecosystems,” Kaplan said. “Adding a third ecosystem to that just adds a lot of complexity for us, as well.”

 

However, Kaplan isn’t about to completely dismiss the idea of a Switch version, saying that he likes to “tell people we’re very open-minded about what platforms we could be on,” and that just because they are not on a platform as of right now, that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t consider it in the future.

 

Here’s a look at all of Kaplan’s comments regarding the Switch:

 

“I think the problem is, we’ve really targeted our min spec in a way that we would have to revisit performance and how to get on that platform. And also, it’s already challenging right now maintaining three platforms and patching simultaneously, which is something that we’ve finally been able to achieve.”

 

“Our first couple of patches would come out on PC first and then later on the consoles. And a lot of that is because you’re working with Microsoft and Sony, and you want to be compliant to their ecosystems. Adding a third ecosystem to that just adds a lot of complexity for us, as well.”

 

“But I always like to tell people we’re very open-minded about what platforms we could be on. Just because we’re not on a platform right now, it doesn’t mean we won’t reconsider it in the future, so we stay aware of all these things.”

 

Overwatch is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.


Siliconera is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Casey
Casey
Former Siliconera staff writer and fan of JRPGs.