Blizzardhas revealed that former Riot Games and Bungie developer Jared Neuss has recently joined the developer as an executive producer forOverwatch 2. The long-awaited sequel to the hero shooter has made waves throughout the gaming industry since its launch earlier this month after years in development. The second game brought with it a handful of new Heroes like Junker Queen and Kiriko and recently launched itsfirst event with Halloween Terrorbringing back the popular Junkenstein’s Revenge game mode. Now, the game’s development team has seen a major new addition.
Blizzard has announced the addition of Jared Neuss to theOverwatch 2team, joining Blizzard’s Team 4 as an executive producer. Neuss comes to Blizzard with more than 10 years of experience in the gaming industry split between big names like 343 Industries, Bungie, and Riot Games. Neuss served as a Senior Producer on many of the online services forHalo 5: Guardianswith 343 and Lead Gameplay Producer forDestiny 2, even briefly sitting as Bungie’s Head of Production.
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Jared Neuss' most recent position saw the producer spend four years with Riot Games working on many of the developers' biggest projects. Neuss originally served as a Product Manager for many ofLeague of Legends' competitive-oriented game modes including Ranked play, matchmaking, and leading the re-design ofLeague of Legends' “Clash” in-game tournaments. Neuss would later serve as Initiative Lead forLeague of Legendsspinoff gameTeamfight Tacticsand Director of Production forRiot Games' in-development MMORPG.
Neuss' addition to theOverwatch 2team comes as the hero shooter recently launched its first event with a variety of new game modes, skins, and more. The Halloween Terror event features the return ofOverwatch’s Junkenstein’s Revenge game mode, as well as a newstory-based spinoff called Wrath of the Bride.The event also features new Halloween-themed skins for a handful of characters, with players receiving the Cursed Captain Reaper skin for free and Werewolf Winston available from Twitch drops.Overwatch 2’s new characters, Kiriko and Junker Queen, also received spooky new skins alongside the event.
Neuss will come in as executive producer of anOverwatch 2that has seen a rocky launch with several issues hindering the game from the outset.Overwatch 2saw significant server issues shortly after the game’s release with many players experiencing difficulties logging into the game and staying connected to matches. Several characters were even disabled temporarily withTorbjorn removed from Competitive Play and Bastion entirely disabled. Neuss will bring years of experience with competitive online games to his new role with Blizzard andOverwatch 2.
Overwatch 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
