It looks like Blizzard continues to take out any references to real people from its games. This time, the company removed an easter egg to Overwatch former game director Jeff Kaplan from one of the upcoming game’s maps.
The change was spotted by a Redditor on September 26.
A tribute to Kaplan was initially added to Overwatch’s New York map, with a pizza place named Jephs Corner Pizza. The misspelled name was also a reference to a photo of Kaplan shared by Jeremy Craig in 2017. A cup of coffee he ordered at Starbucks read “Jeph.”
However, the easter egg was removed in the latest Bastion rework video, with the “Jephs” part missing from the restaurant’s logo.
Jeff Kaplan left Blizzard in April after 19 years at the company. He was later replaced by Aaron Keller. Overwatch 2 executive producer Chacko Sonny also left the studio last week, although neither his nor Kaplan’s departures are connected to the ongoing harassment scandal.
Blizzard started to remove references to real people from its games in the wake of the DFEH lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. The studio has already removed a few tributes from World of Warcraft and announced its decision to rename Overwatch’s character McCree named after former game designer Jesse McCree.