Jeff Kaplan Confirms Mauga was Originally Hero 31

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed Monday that Mauga, the Talon operative who first appeared in Baptiste's origin story, was originally set to be Hero 31.

Many fans were surprised Monday when Blizzard revealed Overwatch Hero 31 to be Sigma, an entirely different Talon tank. On a stream with Brandon "Seagull" Larned, Kaplan addressed that surprise and explained why the development team decided to release Sigma first.

Although Blizzard initially planned to release Mauga as the 31st hero, Kaplan said the abilities the team had come up with didn't fit for the brute force approach Mauga displayed in "What You Left Behind."

"At the time," Kaplan explained, "we were developing the character of Mauga, and we thought Mauga was going to be this character. But as the abilities started to come together, and Geoff and Josh were putting together this really fun barrier tank, we were like, 'This doesn't fit the personality of Mauga at all.'"

"We really didn't want to betray the character of Mauga and we didn't want to betray the game design, so we started brainstorming, 'Well, what is a character that makes more sense for the abilities that are going on here?'"

Though Kaplan fell short of confirming Mauga would be released as a playable hero, his comments fed the fires of speculation and shed light on the development team's creative process.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard