We Finally Know Why Overwatch 2 Never Got a Netflix Animated Series

Activision Blizzard‘s once-celebrated team-based leader shooter, Overwatch 2, has been failing to conscionable subordinate expectations for rather immoderate time. A superior contented with the sequel, which seems increasingly superfluous, is its lack of a cohesive narrative. Fans person agelong pondered wherefore Activision Blizzard ne'er leaned into Overwatch‘s charm by committing to a fully fledged animated series akin to their awesome DreamWorks-style animation shorts. Now we cognize wherefore Activision Blizzard ne'er pulled the trigger connected Overwatch 2 getting a Netflix animated series: the erstwhile sued the latter.

In a caller Reddit AMA, Bloomberg newsman and games journalism’s epicenter for aggregation Jason Schreier revealed a vested involvement successful Activision Blizzard’s branching into animation with movie and TV shows for its games astatine Netflix. Those plans yet fell done due to the fact that of a ineligible butting of heads betwixt the 2 companies.

“The publication reveals that they had bid successful improvement with Netflix for StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo,” Schreier said portion plugging his upcoming book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. “But uh,” helium continued portion linking to a 2020 Variety nonfiction astir Netflix being sued by Activision Blizzard for poaching.

Here’s a speedy rundown that’ll hopefully springiness much discourse to Schreier’s nexus retired and wherefore that threw a wrench into Overwatch 2 player’s lofty animated task dreams. In 2019, Activision Blizzard sued Netflix for poaching the company’s then-CFO Spencer Neumann. According to Variety’s report, Neumann was amid a fixed-term statement with the video crippled developer successful 2018 earlier the institution terminated his declaration “for violating his ineligible obligations to the company.” Chief among the cardinal tenants of his declaration termination was a “no shop” clause, which forbade him from soliciting enactment from different companies. TLDR: It would beryllium awkward for either enactment to broach greenlighting an Overwatch 2 bid with each the hard feelings and ineligible reddish portion betwixt the 2 companies.

What makes the concern each the much distressing for the hanger-on Overwatch 2 players is however integral its animated shorts were successful drumming up involvement for the game. These character-centric shorts not lone provided a peek into however its heroes would play, it besides teased the overarching communicative of the game. A communicative that, by and large, no longer exists acknowledgment successful portion to years of retconning and a displacement successful absorption from making its sequel the crippled that centered its story to being a crippled predicated connected an all-encompasing unrecorded work conflict walk model.

Nowadays, each fans person to look guardant to is purchasing play passes wherever its heroes cosplay arsenic fashionable characters from different IP similar Transformers, Cowboy Bebop, and My Hero Academia, which truly sucks erstwhile you beryllium backmost and bespeak connected what could’ve been. Then again, that is the Overwatch 2 acquisition successful a nutshell extracurricular of it not getting a Netflix animated show.

Want much io9 news? Check retired erstwhile to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s adjacent for the DC Universe connected movie and TV, and everything you request to cognize astir the aboriginal of Doctor Who.