Project Titan was Blizzard’s ambitious follow-up to World of Warcraft, but it was ultimately cancelled in 2014. The project’s assets and lessons, however, helped shape what would become Overwatch.
Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan shared on the Lex Fridman podcast that Titan started because the studio feared WoW’s longevity. Kaplan explained, “There was this concept in the studio that WoW wasn’t gonna last forever and it would maybe be successful for five years… the studio would be in real trouble if we didn’t have another massively multiplayer online game sort of waiting in the wings.”
Though Titan never launched, its scale and ambition—described by Kaplan as “gargantuan, huge undertaking”—laid the groundwork for Blizzard’s next big hit, influencing both design philosophy and team experience.