Insomniac founder and president Ted Price has announced his retirement from the games industry, having led the company for the past 30 years. He will step down at the end of March 2025 and will be replaced by three studio co-heads.
Ted Price has been integral to Insomniac throughout its history, the creative director behind Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and Resistance: Fall of Man. All of them are PlayStation icons for their respective generations, with Ratchet & Clank continuing to be a family friendly favourite to this day.
In his retirement blog post, and after initially addressing the hardship facing many in the wake of the wildfires in California, Price said:
Another aspect of our culture I hold dear is the Insomniacs’ ability to pull together and successfully overcome what often seem like insurmountable obstacles.
Speaking of which, despite a challenging 2024, Insomniacs stayed fully focused on building games for our fans. As a result of the team’s persistence and collaboration, we’re in one of the strongest positions we’ve experienced in years, with each game in development looking beautiful and playing fantastic.
Therefore, last week, I felt comfortable announcing to the Insomniac team that after having been incredibly fortunate to enjoy such a fulfilling career in games, I’ll be retiring from the industry at the end of March. Today, I’m sharing this news more broadly.
I actually made this decision last year. For me, after over 30 years of leading Insomniac, I felt it was simply time to step aside and let others pave the way for our team.
Filling the space that Price is vacating will be three co-heads for the studio: Chad Dezern, Ryan Schneider and Jen Huang.
Schneider joined Insomniac during the PS2 era on the marketing and comms side, and has most recently been Head of Brand and Leadership Strategy. Huang joined eight years ago as CFO and Head of Finance, having previously been a finance exec elsewhere. Lastly, Dezern started at Insomniac back in 1998 as part of the creative team working in various roles as Environment Artist, Art Director, Studio Director for the Durham studio, and as the Head of Creative since 2017.
Of the trio, Price writes:
For many years, Chad, Jen and Ryan have been instrumental in making Insomniac what we are today. I’ve seen each lead major initiatives here which have positively changed Insomniacs’ lives. Plus, they’ve consistently demonstrated the kind of collaboration and transparency that’s part of our DNA. And just as important, their skillsets are truly complementary.
There is no way that I would ever consider handing the reins to a team I didn’t trust to take care of Insomniacs and lead us to even greater heights. Chad, Jen and Ryan are that team. For those who may not be familiar, please take a moment to get to know them here.
Source: SIEE, PlayStation Blog
