Activision Blizzard ‘s once-celebrated team-based hero shooter, Overwatch 2 , has been failing to meet player expectations for quite some time. A primary issue with the sequel, which seems increasingly superfluous , is its absence of a cohesive narrative. Fans have long pondered why Activision Blizzard never leaned into Overwatch ‘s charm by committing to a fully fledged animated series akin to their impressive DreamWorks-style animation shorts.
Now we know why Activision Blizzard never pulled the trigger on Overwatch 2 getting a Netflix animated series: the former sued the latter. In a recent Reddit AMA , Bloomberg reporter and games journalism’s epicenter for aggregation Jason Schreier revealed a vested interest in Activision Blizzard’s branching into animation with film and TV shows for its games at Netflix. Those plans ultimately fell through because of a legal butting of heads between the two companies.
“The book reveals that they had series in development with Netflix for StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo,” Schreier said while plugging his upcoming book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment . “But uh,” he continued while linking to a 2020 Variety article about Netflix being sued by Activision Blizzard for poaching. Here’s a quick rundown that’ll hopefully give more context to Schreier’s link out and why that threw a wrench into Overwatch 2 player’s lofty animated project dreams.
In 2019, Activision Blizzard sued Netflix .
