• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Scott Rohde on Amy Hennig's Departure [Up: Naughty Dog responds]

Status
Not open for further replies.

Vire

Member
I'm not blaming on her. I'm implying Druckmand and Strally was working on the first two. Seeing how the first two UC games were great, and TLOU turned out great, just wondering if ND is handing over the UC franchise to them.

That's the part I really don't understand though, if Neil and Bruce were to take mantle of the Uncharted series, who would lead the second team of presumably a new IP or a sequel to The Last of Us? Naughty dog is a two team studio.

From the statements that Sony has made, it sounds like Amy's contributions to the writing of the story have been already made and Justin Richmond will continue to finish the project as scheduled.
 

prwxv3

Member
Noobasuar needs a new one too. "Get back in your box",
Maybe that will finally make him learn the lesson his previous bans failed to do. Some of his views are not even exclusive to him (I even share some of his views) but he is such a elitist jerk that I can't help but want to not agree with him.
 
I see the "Naughty Gods" defense force is out in full force. This has to be one of the most embarrassing threads I've read in a while. Corporate apologists are the worst.

People get fired, it happens in every field in every sector in every industry and that includes good people for different reasons. Hennig is not Naughty Dog and Naughty Dog is not Hennig. Naughty Dog wants to move on and I think the adult thing to do is for fans to move on as well. She won't be back on the UC series and conspiracy theories of somwthing awful or amazing however she was let go is right now between ND and her. They want the fans to focus on the games not hiring firing dramas. Not sure how that is hard to understand
 

conman

Member
It's a shame they couldn't go into any details on the matter because their post really told us nothing. I know it would be dumb on their part to actually say what happened within the studio, but being all vague about it doesn't really help matters.
When you're dealing with people's jobs, you legally have to watch what you say and how you say it. This isn't about being evasive or vague. Their hands are tied in terms of what they can say.
 

Yopis

Member
This is why i tend to stay quite until more "facts" come out...so many people were calling them cunts, assholes,etc you name it...all sorts of name calling going on in the other thread but yet no one really had any proof nor really know what she is like or what goes on behind closed doors. I just think being hasty with the mouth can be a real mean thing imho....i love peeps with a humbled mind and mouth ;)

Whole thing had the feel of certain subset of people, trying to shoehorn gender issues also. Those evil guys ganged up on poor Henning ect. We had and still have no real info to character assassinate anyone. Gaf at Its worst the other day.

Hope people think before they point fingers in the future.
 

R-User!

Member
The fact that they won't tell us anything further apart from "things change", insist on dropping the whole affair to get back to making games, say they're setting the record straight to protect their employees (and not Hennig), and having nothing nice to say about Hennig, and having not heard a message from Hennig herself, pretty much seals the deal that this wasn't an amicable departure.

Yeah one thing does not tell a story; but many things that begin to add up often times do.

Drama...
 

Truespeed

Member
When you work at a company long enough you begin to think you're irreplaceable. And when you don't get your way you start throwing around ultimatums. I don't blame Naughty Dog one bit about what happened and how it went down. If I had to guess this was a power play. I also don't think she was pushed out, but rather was not receptive to her new role on Uncharted 4. Being the writer and director on UC 1, 2 and 3 and then being relegated to a lesser role as Neil Druckmann took over would be unacceptable to a lot of people. Of course, this is all speculation, but I'd bet on its plausibility.
 

kevin1d

Neo Member
And frankly, its none of our business.

Well it depends on the situation and the type of job being that she worked on previous titles and is quite well known. To see her just leave midway through a project people are going to question why it's natural.

it's just easier to say people are nosy, and the more connected your career is to the community the more scrutiny you come under.
 

Vire

Member
People get fired, it happens in every field in every sector in every industry and that includes good people for different reasons. Hennig is not Naughty Dog and Naughty Dog is not Hennig. Naughty Dog wants to move on and I think the adult thing to do is for fans to move on as well. She won't be back on the UC series and conspiracy theories of somwthing awful or amazing however she was let go is right now between ND and her. They want the fans to focus on the games not hiring firing dramas. Not sure how that is hard to understand

It's not hard to understand, however I understand fans concerns when they see a centerpiece of the series leave under mysterious circumstances. It's only natural to question. And considering we have yet to see hardly anything of Uncharted 4, it's kind of hard to just "focus on the game" and judge it for what it is.

I don't doubt it will be great though, there is more than enough talent at ND to make sure that project remains top tier.
 

conman

Member
And frankly, its none of our business.
They're an entertainment company that intentionally puts their talent in the public spotlight. So it actually kind of is our business.

But like I said, some things would be ethically and legally wrong to talk about in detail.
 

kevin1d

Neo Member
They're an entertainment company that intentionally puts their talent in the public spotlight. So it actually kind of is our business.

But like I said, some things would be ethically and legally wrong to talk about in detail.


It's not hard to understand, however I understand fans concerns when they see a centerpiece of the series leave under mysterious circumstances. It's only natural to question. And considering we have yet to see hardly anything of Uncharted 4, it's kind of hard to just "focus on the game" and judge it for what it is.

I don't doubt it will be great though, there is more than enough talent at ND to make sure that project remains top tier.


put these 2 comments together and what do we have . . . peanut butter & jelly . . nope logicccccccccc
 
What's going on is none of my business, but seeing the credits for the Uncharted series,

1) I was surprised that Mark Cerny was a producer and designer of the first game. Neil Druckman was also a designer.

2) The second game, Bruce Strally was co-director.

3) The third game, both Druckman and Strally wasn't involved because they were working on tLoU.

4) The third Uncharted was considered a disappointment.

I'm not suggesting anything but that's interesting to note.

What is interesting to note is the first, second and third games Hennig was a director, game director on the first, creative director of both UC2 and UC3.

So Hennig was creative director on both the "best" and "worst" Uncharteds. Why people ignore that or fail to realise that is becoming really irritating.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
IGN is continuing to report on it at the very least:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03...s-naughty-dog?abthid=5319592f7f6db98f1b00007f

They just posted a new article regarding Evan and Christophe's statements. I do find it amusing they failed to quote the bit about how unprofessional the original article was.

Yes it does?

"We feel it necessary to clear up a very important point that was unprofessionally misreported when the story broke," Evan Walls and Christophe Balestra said in a joint statement on Naughty Dog's site. "Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were NOT involved in what transpired."
 
Whole thing had the feel of certain subset of people, trying to shoehorn gender issues also. Those evil guys ganged up on poor Henning ect. We had and still have no real info to character assassinate anyone. Gaf at Its worst the other day.

Hope people think before they point fingers in the future.

That was day when GAF forgot they had a brain
 
What is interesting to note is the first, second and third games Hennig was a director, game director on the first, creative director of both UC2 and UC3.

So Hennig was creative director on both the "best" and "worst" Uncharteds. Why people ignore that or fail to realise that is becoming really irritating.
Just to play devils advocate, now I'm not trying to imply anything about ND's situation, but Lucas was creative director for Empires Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as well. Just saying.

My point was that Druckman co-directed UC2, so ND must have a lot of confidence in their core team to just let a key figure go.

It's terrible what happened to Hennig since UC is her creation. Sometimes the whole corporate politics sucks and egos and money are the worst enemy.

Maybe it was Sony's descesion? Maybe they wanted a darker and more violent Unchsrted like Tomb Raider or LoU?
 
IGN is continuing to report on it at the very least:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03...s-naughty-dog?abthid=5319592f7f6db98f1b00007f

They just posted a new article regarding Evan and Christophe's statements. I do find it amusing they failed to quote the bit about how unprofessional the original article was.

It's weird, rather than just updating the original story, they now have 3 articles by 3 writers on it:

Original (Mitch Dyer)

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/05/uncharted-ps4-writer-amy-hennig-leaves-naughty-dog

Scott Rohde comments (Colin Moriarty)

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03...people-change-business-changes-things-changea

Naughty Dog comments (Katie Williams)

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03...ved-in-amy-hennigs-departure-says-naughty-dog
 
God this is so confusing. Really wish the original article writer would just say whether 'forced out' was something they threw in themselves without realizing the implication or if it's actually accurate to what their source told them about how things went down.
 

Persona7

Banned
What is interesting to note is the first, second and third games Hennig was a director, game director on the first, creative director of both UC2 and UC3.

So Hennig was creative director on both the "best" and "worst" Uncharteds. Why people ignore that or fail to realise that is becoming really irritating.

I've been seeing a large amount of revisionist history these past few days. Basically many people think that Uncharted 1 and 3 were bad because Amy Hennig worked on them. Then they say Uncharted 2 and TLOU are glorious masterpieces that amy hennig had no involvement with. I keep seeing a sentiment towards distancing Amy Hennig from Uncharted 2.

I don't understand why this is so prevalent.
 
God this is so confusing. Really wish the original article writer would just say whether 'forced out' was something they threw in themselves without realizing the implication or if it's actually accurate to what their source told them about how things went down.
I still say it isn't our right to know and we should leave it at that.

However, one thing is probably for sure: Amy Hennig didn't leave on her own accord.

I think that right there should be enough to let us know that what went down wasn't good. And I think that's all we need to know.
 

M.Bluth

Member
God this is so confusing. Really wish the original article writer would just say whether 'forced out' was something they threw in themselves without realizing the implication or if it's actually accurate to what their source told them about how things went down.
They won't because they'll have to consult their legal team
 
The only thing officially confirmed is

Amy Hennig has left Naughty Dog. She will be missed and, as we stated before, we appreciate the significant contributions that she has made to Naughty Dog and the industry in general. We wish her the best.

Also

Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were NOT involved in what transpired.

That's all that Naughty Dog are going to say on the matter right now.
 

Codeblew

Member
This post is pretty fucking awful also.


Defending them against what exactly ............. blind conjecture? Defamation based on said conjecture?


All this based on the fact that someone no longer works at a place they once did!



If someone leaving a job is a the reason for this circus then surely we should have this carnival of stupid daily ........ games industry has a high turnover of staff.


Embarrassing in the altogether.

I got "forced out" of a job once. Nobody cared =(
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Still really sad about her leaving. These responses help a little, though. I'm all for anything that helps dilute the bad blood.

Not expecting Amy Hennig to comment on ND, though. I've been let go or pushed out of jobs before and I pretty much hated everyone at the company for a good long time after. It's human nature.
 
No, that is all that they are going to say on the matter until Sol goes supernova, consumes Earth, and ends its existence as a brown dwarf.
dalem51sn.gif
 
Just to play devils advocate, now I'm not trying to imply anything about ND's situation, but Lucas was creative director for Empires Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as well. Just saying.

My point was that Druckman co-directed UC2, so ND must have a lot of confidence in their core team to just let a key figure go.

It's terrible what happened to Hennig since UC is her creation. Sometimes the whole corporate politics sucks and egos and money are the worst enemy.

Maybe it was Sony's descesion? Maybe they wanted a darker and more violent Unchsrted like Tomb Raider or LoU?

Druckmann didn't co direct UC2, he was lead designer and one of three writers. He had the same position as Jacob Minkoff on TLoU. Druckmann didn't have a director's position in any of the Uncharteds. Hennig was the only person to be a director on all three Uncharteds, it was her baby. Some people seem to be unaware of that and think she had nothing to do with Uncharted 2.
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Change sometimes involves very high profile people. Awesome observation and way to close the case.

We do not need the details but explaining that higher ups sometimes make decisions is not an explanation. Simply saying we had a differing opinion on the future of Uncharted or the studio would be sufficient.

But maybe that is not even it. 343 had some major people leave, and it was apparent that it was their choice, and they got farewell kisses. Something ominous happened here. Something dark and evil. Just Kidding. But we are no closer to knowing the truth then when it was leaked.

It sounds like one way or the other she was put out to pasture. I doubt she will graze there for long.
 
When you're dealing with people's jobs, you legally have to watch what you say and how you say it. This isn't about being evasive or vague. Their hands are tied in terms of what they can say.

I just wrote a termination agreement for a client that included a confidentiality and non-disparagement clause. It is pretty standard practice.

When people treat the games industry as some magical special land that isn't like other businesses, it baffles me sometimes. I remember Giant Bomb being fascinated by THQ auctioning off their IP. All of this is normal business stuff, folks. Just because the end product is games doesn't make everything run in some different way. Lots of naivete in this thread.
 

Famassu

Member
The fact that they won't tell us anything further apart from "things change", insist on dropping the whole affair to get back to making games, say they're setting the record straight to protect their employees (and not Hennig), and having nothing nice to say about Hennig, and having not heard a message from Hennig herself, pretty much seals the deal that this wasn't an amicable departure.
so much pathetically overreaching conjecture in this post. They CAN'T tell what happened even if it was something as simple as Hennig wanting a bigger pay, let alone if she had something bigger behind her departure. Just like it would be stupid for Hennig or any employee to comment publicly on their ex employers, unless it's something superserious like humanrights violations or something.

Things DO change, it doesn't have to do anything with any drama. Maybe Hennig wanted to do a new IP that the heads of ND didn't or maybe she wanted to take Uncharted into a direction others didn't. Neither has to involve any actual drama you seem to yearn for so much. Much like how Jaffe left Sony after God of War despite the huge success of the franchise. People sometimes want change without there being any drama.

And they DO say nice things about how Hennig has made great contributions to ND as well as all of gaming. Did you even read anything past the first sentence?


And yes, no matter what the reason, Hennig leaving is probably a big deal and ND needs to try to get back into normal daily routine back to developing great games without mulling this over for weeks.

Hennig might not want to comment on this because leaving ND IS a big life altering change for her even if she herself made the decision. She might want to take some time off before commenting, once she has perhaps figured out what to do next.
 

FStop7

Banned
The ball is in the court of the editors at IGN to either say they back the article and are confident in their sources or to post a retraction.
 
Well it is pretty clear that something went down and she didn't leave on friendly terms. Too bad we will probably never find out what it is and who was involved.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Did that female dev from Microsoft go to Naughty Dog, or SSM? I can't remember her name so I am unable to look it up. Does she have any kind of writing chops, or was she more of a tech person?
 

Capella

Member
Did that female dev from Microsoft go to Naughty Dog, or SSM? I can't remember her name so I am unable to look it up. Does she have any kind of writing chops, or was she more of a tech person?

Corrine Yu? She went to Naughty Dog and is involved in programming.
 

FStop7

Banned
Did that female dev from Microsoft go to Naughty Dog, or SSM? I can't remember her name so I am unable to look it up. Does she have any kind of writing chops, or was she more of a tech person?

Corrinne Yu went to Naughty Dog and she is a super hardcore tech person.
 

ZSeba

Member
What's going on is none of my business, but seeing the credits for the Uncharted series,

1) I was surprised that Mark Cerny was a producer and designer of the first game. Neil Druckman was also a designer.

2) The second game, Bruce Strally was co-director.

3) The third game, both Druckman and Strally wasn't involved because they were working on tLoU.

4) The third Uncharted was considered a disappointment.

I'm not suggesting anything but that's interesting to note.

Nope, no sir. ...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom