Over the last couple of months some of the high ranking members of the Naughty Dog team have left, including Amy Hennig and Justin Richmond. Now Nate Wells, who was the Art Director for The Last Of Us, has revealed that he left Naughty Dog at the beginning of April to join Giant Sparrow, developers of The Unfinished Swan. The news came directly from Nate Wells through Twitter.
Hmmm….seem to be some threads here. Yes, I joined the wild, wacky, and ultimately brilliant folks at #GiantSparrow on April 3rd.
— Nate Wells (@PrettyLarceny) April 21, 2014
Obviously people move on to different jobs through their lives but seeing three prominent members of the Naughty Dog staff leave within a short amount to time as each other, and what kind of affect these departures will have on future projects at the studio. Of course it will be interesting to see how Nate Wells’ input will affect Giant Sparrow’s next game.
Source: Twitter
Temascos
Oh man, three major people leaving Naughty Dog is going to surely affect production. It sounds like Nate Wells departure was for a change of scenery more than anything else, new financial year and all. Plus, The Last Of Us was in a four year production cycle, that’s long enough for anyone so yeah.
Hopefully new people will rise up in Naughty Dog to take the helm and push on forwards. Best of luck to those who left though.
pdannysan13
Until now everybody was saying:’ Keep Calm ‘, Naughty Dog is okay. But after this…too many high-key people have left.
blarty
Tonight on ‘Behind the Studio’, conspiracies mount as people leave their jobs.
In other, more mundane news, people leave their jobs.
This is only of importance because of Amy Hennig leaving soon after the UC4 announcement.
bunimomike
Maths alone explains the frequency of people leaving the companies they work for (and joining others). Makes sense that a few of the top/upper brass move on too.
Sure, something could pan-out in the future and we find that Naughty Dog are the most evil company to work for, not only expecting long hours and sublime skills but the marrow from your first born too. Until then… let’s just wish them all the best and move on ourselves. :-)
Loxstokk
Remember when people changing jobs, unit sales data and frame rates weren’t news? I miss those days…