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UC4 Game Director Justin Richmond Leaves ND (And famousmortimer leaves GAF #1393)

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PBY

Banned
Something is going on at every company.

You know what? I'm out. This is all it's going to be. Kneejerking here and there, Sony is doomed, what happened, something is up, panic.jpg (or .gif), and many people will blow this out of proportion as if they've never seen key figures leave a company before, as if it never happened prior to this generation or the previous one.

You do realize there's a middle ground right? Its kind of weird for two game directors to leave a project thats pretty far away from shipping. It can be weird without being "ps4 is over, Sony is done."
 
It seems to me that the people most responsible for Uncharted 3 have now left. Wasn't that the game that seemingly everyone compared unfavorably to Uncharted 2? And now the people most responsible for part 2 and The Last of Us are now in charge of 4? What's the problem here, or am I missing something?

They were also responsible for a lot of what was good about Uncharted 2, especially Amy Hennig. It's not like they came out of nowhere when UC3 development started.
 

Vire

Member
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.
 

Nev

Banned
Lol at people stills saying "this is normal it happens all the time?!" Uncharted 4 is set for disaster.

Again, he's responsible of destroying Uncharted 2 multiplayer and creating Uncharted 3. He is leagues away from Druckmann and Straley, as proved by Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us.

Stop the hyperbole. If anything, it was set for disaster before this happened. The guy makes godawful decisions.
 

LTWood12

Member
So can someone explain this "Druckman" did it meme to me? Because I didn;t know he was in charge of naughty dog

When news of Amy Hennig's departure was originally reported by IGN, they claimed an insider told them she was 'forced out' by Neil Druckmann & Bruce Straley.
 

Jarmel

Banned
It seems to me that the people most responsible for Uncharted 3 have now left. Wasn't that the game that seemingly everyone compared unfavorably to Uncharted 2? And now the people most responsible for part 2 and The Last of Us are now in charge of 4? What's the problem here, or am I missing something?

Honestly, I wish Druckmann and Straley would work on a new IP rather than Uncharted.
 

Recall

Member
Man this isn't good at all. Something's fucked up at Sony. All these layoffs... and all in great studios and usually big names... :(

I thought layoff meant someone was fired or made redundant not voluntary leaving a company?

As far as we are concerned he left Naughty Dog for his own reasons, it is not as if any of us speculating know what happened or have met him or know his opinions on his former place of work. It all could be a coincidence or completely mundane a reason.
 

Capella

Member
But this happens in this industry. In many industries. It's happened before. PS1 era. PS2 era. For many companies.
From my understanding, this is something that happens in the film industry. Pixar for instance have had a few films where directors left in the middle or towards the end of a film and another director had to come in and take over. I think this happened with Toy Story 2, Ratatouille, and Brave? I'm sure there are other examples as well.
 

Duxxy3

Member
Sony seems to be in a spring cleaning phase. Major changes but that isn't necessarily bad. Idk why people are acting as if the sky is falling.

Mostly because information about games from first party studios has disappeared.

Drive club has gone AWOL. The order had mixed reviews from its only gameplay footage. Uncharted 4 lost both of its leads, so who knows how far that game is set back now.

As of right now 2014 is looking like a fairly barren year for first party games. All of this compared to the rumors surrounding Microsoft's 2014 titles(QB, SO, Halo 2, Horizons 2), and people are wondering what the hell is going on at Sony.
 

solarus

Member
TheGuys.jpg


also:


Will never forgive him for what he did to UC2's MP. This is a good thing in my eyes.
Umm what did he do? Uncharted 2 had amazing multiplayer.
 

Tamanon

Banned
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

What percentage of turnover do you consider standard?
 

Fredrik

Member
Bummer.

Interesting to see how little I know about online games too, I had never heard of Riot Games before, thought it was a small indie studio, and just found out that they have 1000 employees and their one and only games is bigger than WoW with 70 million players playing it every month. :/
 
You do realize there's a middle ground right? Its kind of weird for two game directors to leave a project thats pretty far away from shipping. It can be weird without being "ps4 is over, Sony is done."

Indeed. Naughty Dog has had a changing of the guard before. Many studios have. Repeatedly, even.
 

bombshell

Member
So can someone explain this "Druckman" did it meme to me? Because I didn;t know he was in charge of naughty dog

IGN's shoddy journalism about Amy Hennig leaving ND. Their "sources" blamed Druckmann and Straley for it, which ND in a public statement shot down.
 
You do realize there's a middle ground right? Its kind of weird for two game directors to leave a project thats pretty far away from shipping. It can be weird without being "ps4 is over, Sony is done."

And yet, I'm still here. How stupid am I?

How it's it weird if that's common place. It happens in this industry, in any industry, where there's a product. Sometimes, people leave. Hell, at the job I'm in, our project is a month away from competition and the VP just left. Yet, it was on good terms.

It's not always a reason to panic. It's better to stay neutral and just wait and see what happens instead of getting in a tizzy.
 
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

All within the span of ~a month too, don't forget that part

What percentage of turnover do you consider standard?

Depends, but you have to admit, these are only the TOP people we know about on top of whatever "normal" employee turnover any company has. When you are losing this much top talent from your studios, then something starts to get a little bit more outside of the "it must just be a coincidence" zone.
 

graywolf323

Gold Member
Hennig and Richmond in the middle of development on UC4? this is not good

wonder if whatever went down with her caused him to decide to leave, obviously he waited until he had another job lined up but this isn't that long after
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

Have to keep cutting down other studios to save money best put towards funding The Last Guardian.
 

Mondy

Banned
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

This to me reeks of a sinking ship and that worries me.

Sony need to pull their heads in and dump their dead stick departments, quickly.
 

scoobs

Member
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

600 people have left my company this year (so far), and others have been hired, what do you consider standard turnover?
 

MavFan619

Banned
You do realize there's a middle ground right? Its kind of weird for two game directors to leave a project thats pretty far away from shipping. It can be weird without being "ps4 is over, Sony is done."
Yeah I even as recently as a post yersterday have remained optimistic but at this point E3 needs to happen alread because the Sony 1st party stuff is all in a weird state. It's unsettling, I'm not in a panic as much as confused and I want to know what POSITIVE things are happening at these Studios.
 

anaron

Member
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

I wonder what the reaction would be if Druckman left. Would people still champion a Last of Us Sequel?
 

StuBurns

Banned
I reckon there's nothing sinister behind Justin's departure in that sense. Dude started as a multiplayer designer, so deciding he's had enough of SP games and heading to Riot just seems a natural progression. Maybe Amy leaving was just the push he needed to do it.
I don't think what I posted is 'sinister' at all?

Games cost a lot of money, ND management have to make tough decisions, no one is going to like going from director to whatever lower position they'd have to, and that seems like a very natural motivator to leave.

Then again, Riot are a very big deal, maybe it's completely unrelated to Amy's departure, who knows.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Correct me if I am wrong but didn't something like this happen to Naughty Dog when they transitioned to the PS3 aswell Twitter and it's like we're not nearly as prevalent as they are today but I remember a story recently about Naughty Dog moving from Jak to Uncharted ruffled quite a few feathers internally and caused some departures.

Feels like ND reinvents themselves every generation, could just be happening again and the casualties are more pronounced this time because of the wider use of social media.
 

Sendou

Member
Casualties List:

Amy Hennig (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Justin Richmond (Creative Director) of Naughty Dog
Col Rodgers (Creative Director) of Evolution Studios
Stig Asmussen (Creative Director) of Sony Santa Monica
Jaime Griesemer (Lead Designer) of Sucker Punch
60+ Employees of Sony Santa Monica
Jack Tretton as President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Nope, nothing to see here guys, standard turnover. Not a trend.

Another noteworthy employee that left Sony recently would be Seth Killian (Lead Gameplay Designer) of Sony Santa Monica.
 

Vire

Member
600 people have left my company this year (so far), and others have been hired, what do you consider standard turnover?

I think you are missing the part where it's the creative directors of each game from each studio leaving.

No one would give a shit if it was the gameplay programmer.
 
2g7PhkH.png

"We're gonna be getting rid of these people here... First, Mr. Justin Richmon... Richmon... Richmon... Not gonna work here anymore, anyway."
 
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