It's all Neil Druckmann now. The lone ruler of Naughty Dog.
From Naughty Dog to Misery Dog. TLOU for everybody until the end of time.
Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells announces he will be retiring later this year.
- Thread starter Sleepy Brown
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It's all Neil Druckmann now. The lone ruler of Naughty Dog.
From Naughty Dog to Misery Dog. TLOU for everybody until the end of time.
OP
OP
Guess that means nothing related to Jak & Daxter from ND. Even Savage Starlight is probably too far removed from the direction they seem to want to move in now.
This news in itself isn't "bad" but it definitely looks bad optics-wise considering the other big news that came out today. Stuff like this isn't going to inspire a lot of confidence in those who want to invest in PlayStation for a variety of 1P and 3P exclusive content.
This news in itself isn't "bad" but it definitely looks bad optics-wise considering the other big news that came out today. Stuff like this isn't going to inspire a lot of confidence in those who want to invest in PlayStation for a variety of 1P and 3P exclusive content.
ND could be in trouble. Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin started ND and made crash. But it was under Evan Wells leadership that ND became the powerhouse that it is today. I don’t trust Druckmann to run this studio. Also why is this Charlie Brown troll clown still on here?
Druckmann is the most successful person ND has ever produced. We really worried about the 3 X GOTY winning director having more of a say? Based on what
Is he? Amy Hennig just as important to Naughty Dog along with Bruce Straley as Druckmann.
Bruce couldn't handle the heat in the kitchen and got out
Amy is just a script writer. The only game she single handedly directed was Drake's Fortune which had the worst gameplay Naughty Dog ever put out
Uncharted 4 was a disaster until Bruce and Druckmann came in to save it
There's a reason she has struggled to get a game out since leaving the lofty support of Naughty Dog
How? The man is retiring after 25 years with the company.
That hardly screams "OH NO THEY'RE IN TROUBLE" to anyone but fanboys.
I can understand the sentiment if it means ND just sticking to the same IP TLOU and Uncharted, and more of the same in that style. Fantastic IP, fantastic games but...you have to understand some miss the more playful side that made games like Crash and Jak & Daxter, too. Or would have liked to see games like Savage Starlight come to fruition.
That's likely got a 0% chance of ever happening with Neil Druckmann assuming even more control over the studio. You'll get TLOU & Uncharted, and you'll like it. Even love it. But ND can do more variety-wise than just those IP.
I'm not saying Naughty Dog are in trouble at all necessarily, or that Wells leaving is in itself a "troubling" development. However, it's just in combination with today's news, a prominent member of one of Sony's most prestigious studios departing isn't necessarily good optics to offset some of the concerns pockets of people may have about how Sony navigates in an (unfairly) shifting market. That's all.
I try to be measured in how I view these things, but I won't pretend the possibility of MS getting ABK, combined with a key ND person who was part of some of the studio's unique variety IP-wise departing, is just going to mean "business as usual" for Sony. It won't.
Bruce Was burnt out, yeah that's a good way to dehumanize developers. Naughty Dog lost ALOT of veteran staff after Uncharted 4 insane crunch.
Without Amy where would ND be today? Lol
Uncharted 4 was such a disaster they used a lot of her source material?
OKAY you sound quite misogynist
Let's see:
- Their most recent game is the fastest selling one they ever had
- Their most recent game was the game that earned more GOTY awards in gaming history
- They have been growing in recent years becoming bigger than ever and as of now are about 400 people
- They are working in minimum 3 big internal games at the same time, more than before
- They recently released Uncharted and TLOU adaptations for cinema and tv with huge record success
Without Amy ND released Uncharted 4 (+Lost Legacy) and TLOU 2 with big sales suceess and critical acclaim.Bruce Was burnt out, yeah that's a good way to dehumanize developers. Naughty Dog lost ALOT of veteran staff after Uncharted 4 insane crunch.
Without Amy where would ND be today? Lol
Uncharted 4 was such a disaster they used a lot of her source material?
OKAY you sound quite misogynist
Without ND Amy worked in Battlefield Hardline and Forspoken, that were both flops in sales that got yellow metacritic.
After 30 years in game development (worked 5 years in Sega and Crystal Dynamics before joining ND), Evan should be around 50 years old, rich and tired after many years crunching in many gems he worked on.
He's retiring now that the studio is on its best moment ever and he'll do it after planning studio management replacement and verifying everything is ok during some months before he leaves, that's all.
Changes and delays aren't troubles, they are common and frequent parts of the creative process of normal game development in every studio.
And Evan leaving is only a pretty rich 50 years old executive, who was no longer involved in game development but instead working on studio management (but who crunched like a motherfucker decades ago when was a dev), retiring.
Nothing rare or troubling.
I think it was in TLOUP1 that there was some drawing of dragons and a black woman that maybe were a tease of an upcoming new IP.
Uncharted and TLOU are some of the biggest Sony moneymakers so with or without ND Sony will continue milking them.
Not long ago the ND copresidents said they were interested on working in new IP in addition to TLOU and Uncharted.
Also, PS4 was the only gen where ND didn't release a new IP. So I think one of the multiple games they also have in the works including SP that ND mentioned when announcing the delay of TLOU Online is going to be a new IP for PS5.
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And we know they used a lot of her Source material for Uncharted for. The only thing Neil changed was making Sam not be the villain and including Nadine ans scaling down level sizes.
My point stands without Amy where would ND be today? You seem to not understand the fire situation they were in as a studio until her Uncharted pitch.
There's a reason she was thanked in Uncharted 4 credits. Lost Legacy still used her character creations as well.
Forespoken wasn't even a bad game, clearly you didn't play it.
Amy's idea for Uncharted 4 was to remove the action/violence. Her idea for the game was pretty different than we finally got. Thankfully when they replaced her that idea was rejected.
She was part of a huge team of very talented individuals including other writers, designers, directors and concept artists who cocreated the Uncharted games and characters.
She was thanked in the credits because left before shipping the game but contributed to it.
Before Uncharted Naughty Dog already were very successful with Crash Bandicoot series in PS1 and Jak series in PS2, there wasn't any fire there. Uncharted was their IP for PS3 and wasn't only created by Amy, many more people had a key role there.
Forspoken has a 63(PC) and 64(PS5) Metacritic.
Uncharted 4 and TLOU2 had 93 MC.
There was no intention to remove Action and violence. The intention was to diverse the gameplay and incorporate more stealth with bigger explorable environments (SOMETHING they started with Uncharted 3) with the Graveyard level which was fantastic with utilizing the games mechanic... You are so twisting the truth to suit your stupid agenda.
Amy herself publicly stated they used A LOT of her source material on Twitter. Why would she lie? That was the only time she ever commented on Uncharted 4 after leaving the company.
Uncharted 4 still has less action than Uncharted 3.
Naughty Dog lost a ton of staff and leadership after Jak X shipped. It was Amy's pitch for Uncharted that got the studio back on track.
What does Metacritic have to do with anything? Forespoken's metacritic doesn't reflect the actual game.... Again did you play it?