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Michael Knowland (Lead Character Artist) leaves Naughty Dog

P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
attachment.php


*salute*
 
S

Squire

Banned
bombshell said:
4 I think. Not exactly as earth shattering as some would make it sound.
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And yet, they've all been leads. So by the same token, you don't seem to give it the weight it deserves yourself.

It's not earth shattering, no. But we're not exactly talking about green thumbs or interns, either.
 
D

Dragonborn

Member
Inorigo said:
And yet, they've all been leads. So by the same token, you don't seem to give it the weight it deserves yourself.

It's not earth shattering, no. But we're not exactly talking about green thumbs or interns, either.
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This guy wasn't even working on UC apperently, yet people are jumping on the "oh no UC doomed" train. It's ridiculous
 
A

Atruvius

Member
Didn't a lot of people leave Naughty Dog when they switched from PS2 development to PS3 now they same is happening this gen.
 
E

eddievanclaylen

Member
To me, it looks like the videogame industry has a super high turnover rate ... just like the restaurant industry I know oh so well.

It's not that big of a deal, people come and go all the time, someone will always be there to fill the vacant shoes.
 
A

amstradcpc

Member
bombshell said:
4 I think. Not exactly as earth shattering as some would make it sound.

Amy Hennig
Justin Richmond
Nate Wells
Michael Knowland
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I agree the first two ones could leave for egos affair, but you can´t allow your character lead designer to leave. Even worse, he leaves after having designed the characters of one of the best games of the gen, and along Uncharted 2 the best game of ND.
 
Calcium

Calcium

Banned
It really makes you wonder what is happening over there. Naughty Dog is a really talented team and it sucks to see them losing people like this.
 
S

Squire

Banned
Dragonborn said:
This guy wasn't even working on UC apperently, yet people are jumping on the "oh no UC doomed" train. It's ridiculous
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O...kay?

It's says nothing of UC, sure. They just lost another lead from TLOU, regardless. That's kind of a big deal. Uncharted is irrelevant in this specific situation.
 
A

amstradcpc

Member
eddievanclaylen said:
To me, it looks like the videogame industry has a super high turnover rate ... just like the restaurant industry I know oh so well.

It's not that big of a deal, people come and go all the time, someone will always be there to fill the vacant shoes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, here is Sony who has to try to mantain the employees of their best studio.
 
B

bombshell

Member
Inorigo said:
And yet, they've all been leads. So by the same token, you don't seem to give it the weight it deserves yourself.

It's not earth shattering, no. But we're not exactly talking about green thumbs or interns, either.
Click to expand...

Sometimes things just don't work out on a project, 4 departures in that regard is a small number, no matter their positions. Amy Hennig was a big loss, the others? Nah.

I would give a higher impact to the much higher number of layoffs at Sony Santa Monica than this.
 
D

Dragonborn

Member
Inorigo said:
O...kay?

It's says nothing of UC, sure. They just lost another lead from TLOU, regardless. That's kind of a big deal. Uncharted is irrelevant in this specific situation.
Click to expand...

But it's not a big deal, people move around all the time. They guy did great on TLoU, maybe he wants to move on to something else now since ND will probably do TLOU 2.

What better time to move than after releasing the best game of last gen.(imo of course)
 
T

travisbickle

Member
I think I said this last time but:

Who do you think applies for the experienced positions in the game industry if people don't leave jobs?

3-4 years in a position as a young creative is long enough.
 
A

amstradcpc

Member
bombshell said:
Sometimes things just don't work out on a project, 4 departures in that regard is a small number, no matter their positions. Amy Hennig was a big loss, the others? Nah.

I would give a higher impact to the much higher number of layoffs at Sony Santa Monica than this.
Click to expand...

Ok, but i am sure that if Real Madrid loses Cristiano Ronaldo, even being 1 of 24 players in the team, the team results will be affected...

ND's Cristiano Ronaldo nowadays is Jason Gragory, so i hope not to see a thread saying he leaves...
 
I

Instro

Member
Persona7 said:
It is normal for top talent to leave the studio practically all at once?
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It just happened at a time when people are hyper-examining the staffing at the studio due to Hennig's departure, same thing happened to Retro not too long ago. My general impression is that staff turnover is pretty common in most western studios. I don't think it matters too much in the grand scheme of things, the studio is well over 200 people strong and their games don't take some great visionaries to create. Losing 4-5 people is pretty small time news. Seems like this is even less meaningful given that he only worked on TLoU for the company.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
That clicker model is gorgeous.
Sendou said:
No wonder they got rid of him. That beard and hair looks horrible. No doubt it took some other artist ages to fix.
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I can't tell if you're serious or if you're parodying some posts in the Hennig thread.
 
C

Callibretto

Member
Man, ND presidents mentioned the reason they expanding to 2 team is because they are bleeding talent and want to prevent them from leaving, obviously that didn't work out. Maybe the constant comparison between the team like us calling them A team and B team is the problem? ND had some very talented people there, some of the best in the industry, hearing people calling them B team could be a bit annoying, maybe some of them think they'll be treated better in another company.

They now have naughty dog in their resume and probably highly sought after by other developer.
 
S

Savitar

Member
Old guard being forced out?

Nude alien conspiracies in the next Uncharted?

Naughty Dog being taught to be Good Dog?

Stay tune. Same GAF forum. Same GAF time.
 
Neff

Neff

Member
Dragonborn said:
Could it be poaching? I'd think ND would be prime target for that.
Click to expand...

Probably. It seems to be the case that 2014's penny-pinching Sony can't make its developers better offers than eager competitors can, as they may have been able to in the past. Which is much more plausible than any kind of suggested internal power struggles or disputes, at least.

Still, so many high-profile names exiting in such a short window is uncommon.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
coolasj19 said:
Ugh. Begin the doom and gloom and wtf Naughty Dog and concern trolling and legitimate trolling and legitimate concern.

Didn't you post almost this exact same post earlier today?

ND is made up of a lot of individual people. I don't know why you think nobody at Naughty Dog wants to work on Uncharted. There's obviously a number of people there with a passion for the franchise. There could be people leaving because they want to work on new IP, or because they wanted to work on TLoU 2, and it's just as possible there are people staying because they want to work on Uncharted. Maybe the same people leaving are for better opportunities. And besides didn't this exact same thing happen before at the end of the PS2 Era?
Click to expand...

Am I not allowed to post my opinions in two different threads that possibly have the same underlying cause? Or am I only allowed to have a thought once and then never type it again?
 
G

GameAddict411

Member
Callibretto said:
Man, ND presidents mentioned the reason they expanding to 2 team is because they are bleeding talent and want to prevent them from leaving, obviously that didn't work out. Maybe the constant comparison between the team like us calling them A team and B team is the problem? ND had some very talented people there, some of the best in the industry, hearing people calling them B team could be a bit annoying, maybe some of them think they'll be treated better in another company.

They now have naughty dog in their resume and probably highly sought after by other developer.
Click to expand...

that makes sense, maybe the "B" team didn't want to work on another uncharted but somehow sony is forcing them? there got to be something going on there and it's not pretty.
 
E

Earthpainting

Member
There's something going on, but it's hard to pin down what. This could range from cleaning house with a new generation, creative differences, or office politics, to simple people getting more lucrative offers after a rather well-received generation of output. I doubt we'll get to hear what's going on any time soon.
 
B

boredandlazy

Member
He was probably the guy who posted here that Corrinne Yu was useless and should get the sack. Since she hasn't yet he decided to leave.

Is it safe to take off my tinfoil hat yet?
 
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