A couple of days ago, it was confirmed that Uncharted series Creative Director and Writer Amy Hennig had left Naughty Dog, with no reason given for her departure. However, a report from IGN did claim that The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley “forced” her out.
Wanting to clear up any misconceptions on the circumstances which led to Hennig leaving, Naughty Dog Co-President’s Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra posted this statement on the Naughty Dog website:
Earlier this week we had to confirm the regrettable news that 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.
However, we feel it necessary to clear up a very important point that was unprofessionally misreported when the story broke. Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were NOT involved in what transpired. It was very upsetting to us that dozens of stories were run, linking back to the same hurtful accusations in the original report. As co-presidents of Naughty Dog, we are responsible for all studio affairs.
Normally, we wouldn’t respond to rumors and speculation on matters that are internal to Naughty Dog, but because the personal reputation of two of our employees is being damaged we needed to set the record straight. There is nothing left to be said on this subject. Now we’re going back to what we should be focused on – making games.
As previously reported, Hennig leaving Naughty Dog won’t have any effect on the upcoming Uncharted game.
How happy are you to see Wells and Balestra stand up for their employees? Let us know in the comments below.
