• 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.

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

Status
Not open for further replies.

SykoTech

Member
XogVqCa.png

Haha, spot on. Thanks for that.
 

Loudninja

Member
But it's Sony that has done almost all of those presumably. DriveClub had to be delayed significantly, someone was at fault for that, the director is no longer there. Stig had four years on a new IP, and it still got canceled, so he's gone.

I think the idea it's a sinking ship implies these people just left, I don't think most of them did at all.

The InFamous lead almost certainly would have, but he's just finished the game, it's leave now or in two or three years if he's unwilling to leave mid-project, which most people don't tend to do.
Right to add to that:

Evolution games got reconstructed same with , Guerrilla Cambridge why is that so hard for people to understand?
 

Jarmel

Banned
IIRC Gavin and Rubin both left ND after Jak 3. That seems like a much bigger deal to me, after all they were the founders of the company and since then ND has continued to grow and prosper more and more.

Leaving after a game is done or leaving right before the game is released, is much more normal as the person's work is done. Here, there is no way Richmond was close to being done. It's really quite abnormal.
 

Biker19

Banned
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.

Exactly. If anything, I'm happy he's gone.
 

Sacrimoni

Banned
I find it interesting that Sony is firing people and losing talent right now given all of their layoffs and closures since the ps3 launch

That said, they having been moving away from big budget exclusive content and towards largely multiplatform indies (as with the vita)

I'd imagine it's cheaper in the long run, and the ps4 hasn't been hurt thus far by a lack of quality exclusives at retail
 
don'ty worry guys. This time it seems that he received a better offer for working on Riot. Chill out, not everything has to be apocaliptic...
 

Sendou

Member
He's been working on Uncharted for a while. Maybe he just got bored?

Well this Uncharted 4 must be one heck of a game if it's so boring that the developers in charge get bored of it mid-development and one chooses League of Legends over it.
 

FACE

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.

Druckmann is on a Godlike streak.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Bruce was a director on UC2, and Neil was lead designer, the idea that UC4 under them would be some TLoU style bleak experience is really unfounded.
 
Agreed. I'm thinking that the specific successes of TLoU caused competing visions for ND moving forward. Rifts opened, people took sides, people got hurt.

I know speculation is dumb, but so am I... so there it is.

Anyway, they'll all be fine.

No, I am there with you.

All of them are close the franchise, but Hennig would always describe Uncharted as a pulpy and light-hearted romp. By contrast, Druckmann made The Last of Us (and wanted to kill Elena). And I can't help but think there's some truth to the IGN article. Even if they weren't forced out, there was a creative argument. It also appeared from the teaser Uncharted was going a bit more serious.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Do you think Druckmann fires everyone individually or does he just send them texts saying dont come back to work

edit: I love the implication that no one could choose to go join Riot Games and work on the world's biggest game right now because they WANT TO WORK ON THE WORLD'S BIGGEST GAME


it must be SOMETHING NEFARIOUS
 
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.
Yes, the "just the standard" sounds like some really annoying fanboy BS, it's getting irritating. Either Sony WWS is going through a monumental overhaul and replacing a lot of people, or there is a serious problem with Sony WWS that's being kept under wraps.
 
I find it interesting that Sony is firing people and losing talent right now given all of their layoffs and closures since the ps3 launch

That said, they having been moving away from big budget exclusive content and towards largely multiplatform indies (as with the vita)

I'd imagine it's cheaper in the long run, and the ps4 hasn't been hurt thus far by a lack of quality exclusives at retail

How can you say they have been moving away from AAA exclusives? You act like the PS4 has been out for 3 years and all we have is Infamous and Killzone. Calm down with the hyperbole.
 

Vire

Member
No offense to all the gameplay programmers out there. We still love you.

Haha, I didn't mean it in an offensive way, I'm just saying that someone like a gameplay programmer is much more easily replaced than a top level creative director.

Because you wouldn't know their names. I imagine there are many programmers moving around on an annual basis.

But the whole presentation is misleading. You can't put Stig's departure, which followed his entire team being wiped out after four years with absolutely nothing to show for it, on the same level as Hennig's departure, which was unexpected and still inexplicable. The Sucker Punch designer's resume shows him jumping around every 2-3 years with regularity. Layoffs are not part of a trend.

Rolling Tretton in is just really the bee's knees.
I agree that they obviously left for very different reasons, but it is still rather concerning...

It would be one thing if it was just one studio with directors leaving mid-project, but it's literally three different high profile studios.
 
Because you wouldn't know their names. I imagine there are many programmers moving around on an annual basis.

But the whole presentation is misleading. You can't put Stig's departure, which followed his entire team being wiped out after four years with absolutely nothing to show for it, on the same level as Hennig's departure, which was unexpected and still inexplicable. The Sucker Punch designer's resume shows him jumping around every 2-3 years with regularity. Layoffs are not part of a trend.

Rolling Tretton in is just really the bee's knees.

That is all true, but Sony needs to give these moves some context so that the internet doesn't go off the deep end with speculation. You and I can talk about it here in the way I wish they could if they were open enough. They went a little in that direction yesterday by talking about Driveclub but I think at some point a sit down interview with someone high up would be nice as they could go at length and really frame what is going on.There is alot of movement but for different reasons. Trying to link them all to one thing probably isn't helpful but some will try.
 

iNvid02

Member
definitley individually, a monster like that has to savour the moment in person.

its actually what fuels his creativity for the next project - uncharted 4 should be smashing
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom