In 2014, months after the reveal of Uncharted 4, series creator Amy Hennig exited the project and Naughty Dog. Soon thereafter, The Last of Us co-creators Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley took over as Uncharted 4’s leads. To this day, the circumstances surrounding Hennig’s departure remain private. This didn’t stop speculation at the time, however. After Hennig’s exit, an IGN report claimed she’d been forced out–Druckmann and Straley were reportedly responsible. The studio debunked the allegation, but Mitch Dyer, the ex-IGN writer credited with penning the article, has confirmed such a tale served as nothing short of “forced gossip” by two former editors.
Dyer took to Twitter earlier today to write a thread about alleged “emotional terror” he experienced at the hands of two ex-IGN editors–Tal Blevins and Steve Butts. In the middle of the thread, Dyer explained that his Hennig/Naughty Dog story from 2014 featured “forced gossip” inserted by Blevins and Butts, alluding to a “hostile takeover” by Druckmann and Straley. When Dyer asked that his name be removed from the article’s byline, both editors refused. Inevitably, Naughty Dog and Sony denounced the report, resulting in Dyer receiving blowback. Neither Blevins nor Butts stepped in on the writer’s behalf.
They forced an unproven claim onto https://t.co/bXvrM2OKzN with my name on it, against my will, to “protect their relationship with Sony.”
When Sony justifiably condemned our story, Steve and Tal were SILENT. They never went to bat for me for a second.
— Mitch Dyer (@MitchyD) June 23, 2020
In a follow up tweet, Dyer apologized to Druckmann and Straley, both of whom have since responded to his posts. Dyer, who’s now a writer at EA Motive on the Star Wars Battlefront II and Star Wars Squadrons campaigns, penned his thread in solidarity with other current and former IGN workers who have come forward in recent days to share stories of the emotional abuse they allegedly experienced under the tenure of Blevins and Butts.
[Source: Mitch Dyer on Twitter]
