Huh.

That's two pretty big figures of Naughty Dog gone, all within a rather small time-frame at that. Justin Richmond was the main man behind Uncharted 3, originally the director behind Uncharted 4, and was especially entrenched on the multiplayer side of things for both Uncharted 2 & 3. Guy's now working on League of Legends at Riot Games, so I suppose multiplayer developments appear to be his preference.

Anywhoo Sony have of course said that his departure will have no impact on the development of PS4 Uncharted ect., as you'd expect. Kinda puts this new Uncharted in a bit of murky light to lose two key members of the team like this. But then, hey, I think Uncharted 3's single-player was heavily flawed, so... perhaps it isn't quite a worst case scenario for the next Uncharted to lose one of the head honchos from aforementioned heavily flawed Uncharted. Though the loss of Amy still continues to suck.

What is going on over at Naughty Dog?

Something has to be happening in regards to the studio's handling of Uncharted 4 right? I mean to the ignorant / casual observer (that's me) it just seems like the big names behind the brand are getting out and doing it fairly close to each other.

@alexandersheen said:

Eh, people move on from companies to a new surprisingly often. I guess it is a little worrying because of course both Amy and Justin have been taken out of the equation for one reason or another so close together. Though that's most likely just an unfortunate coincidence. As to what is happening with this new Uncharted, however... well, nothing much to say as of yet until E3 I suppose.

Isn't a generation leap when studios start making long-term plans, as well as the people in it? If there's a time where people are going to leave studios or studios are just going to shut down, it's now.

Isn't there already a thread on this?

I do not see any reason for panic. People come and people go. And yes Sony is trimming down before the financial report but that also happens because it is a new generation. Not doing this would be strange to be honest. You really should not end up with the same people for a very long time because than it also could get stale

Gotta go where the money is.

If there is it's not located in the Naughty Dog, Uncharted (working title), or Justin Richmond boards.

I knew they should've never went for a 4. This is going to destroy them all!

I'm sure there was but I don't blame you not finding it. I gave it a try myself and cannot be arsed with it, busted search really is a hassle.

As someone posted over on GAF -

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

Seth Killian (Lead Gameplay Designer) 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

All pretty high profile people with key roles at their studios. This isn't just 'trimming down' or 'regular turnover' as people put it. Amy and Justin were the leads on the next Uncharted, you don't just up and leave that so early into production unless something is up. In this case he's said he's going to Riot but everyone else, they're AWOL as far as we know right? You wouldn't just leave your job if you didn't have somewhere else to go unless you really couldn't be there anymore.

@razielcuts: At Neogaf some friend of Col Rodgers said that it was a totally free and own decision and had nothing to do with the company. And he even became upset that people try to spin it this way.

His quote:

Mort, Col Rogers left Evo for personal reasons in Feb, he wasn't pushed, he left on his own terms, and certainly wasn't replaced and let go. I know this because he's a friend of mine, so please be sure next time of the accuracy of your information.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=106037408&postcount=1059

@darji: Yeah, I saw that. I could say I'm besties with Amy Henning though and it doesn't make it so. FamousMortimer vs Putty. Both could be lying, both could be telling the truth. It's such a mess over there these days with all kinds of rumour and speculation flying its hard to know who to believe.

@razielcuts: Given that the game would theoretically have been in development for some time now (most likely once Uncharted 3 was finished even), it would seem a little troublesome to hear two top tier developers for it have gone... but I dunno. I wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions and speculate so vividly on such matters in any case. And like @brodehouse mentioned, it's probably customary for a new generation to enable a lot of changes for companies and the individuals within them.

@razielcuts: Yeah I can see that but why should people lie about that? Neogaf is full of these insiders and people working in this industry so talking like tha does not seem like a stretch to me. But I am also pretty trustworthy as long I did not caught you lying I will believe most things that seem plausible^^

Hell my best friends trolls me every fucking day and I still believe everything he says XD

It's just common sense. They're still hiring new people at all these studios that people leave. It's not Sony having trouble. It's people having egos flow, people wanting to do other things despite the job security and a perfect offer popping up, people being unhappy about not getting higher seats and more cash despite their years. The Stig Project was a huge disaster though.

Honestly I'm always happy when high profile people leave, especially at the turn of the generation.

Every good video game company has a stable of bench warmers who are all super hungry creative folks who have just been dying to be lead on a project/department.

Yes, they are untested (comparatively, of course they have experience) but their hunger and new-found responsibilities could definitely mean very good things.

League is a black hole of talent, Greg Street from Blizzard moved over there recently, too.

I like how he just threw Jack Tretton in there as if it had anything to do with the game designers.

We actually got a statement from Evolutions Col Rodgers. I post the whole quote because I think it is very important to know why he actually left Evolution Software because it is a personal sad story which leaded to FUD about Sony and groundless speculations which also has lead to a "famous" people bans on neogaf.

Hello, all.

This is my first post on NeoGAF, and whilst I'm not generally one to deal in internet speculation, I have to put the record straight with regard to Pete Dodd's comments above.

Everything he has said with regard to myself and Driveclub is incorrect. It's also libellous.

As Putty (who is a personal friend of mine, and has been for about 25 years) suggests, I left Evo in February for personal reasons. The personal reasons being that my son, who is 4 years old, has been diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, which is a potentially life threatening condition. I live 220 miles (4 hours drive) away from Evolution Studios, and was away from home 5.5 days a week. Given the circumstances, I could not continue to work there.

Driveclub is a great game, and the direction hasn't changed since my departure. This has been confirmed by SONY in various press releases over recent days.

I have no problem in dealing with very large projects, as I've been working in the games industry for the last 19 years, and have worked on some very prestigious titles, so there is genuinely no truth to anything posted by Mr Dodds at all. My departure (and indeed the setup of my 'indie' operation, BigRedSwitch) is 100% driven by family necessity, not some professional failing on my part.

I left SONY on very good terms. There is no animosity there, and I was absolutely nothing to do with the recent redundancies - in fact, the news of those redundancies was probably linked on here before I knew about them.

The games industry is a tough place at the moment. My circumstances with my son mean that I've had to leave secure work in order to try to make my own way in the world. This may entail getting another job. With people who obviously know nothing about the situation blackening my reputation for the sake of internet 'fame', this could be made much more difficult. It's nothing less than trolling.

I've contacted Mr. Dodd on his email address on his site. Due to the factual inaccuracy of his statements, I've informed him that he needs to remove the statements and apologise for the damage they have caused, as posting incorrect information and claiming it's true is quite simply libel.

I'm sure you can all appreciate just how difficult things are for myself and my family at the moment. I'd genuinely appreciate it if you can take my statements as word from the origin, and realise that there has been no big cover-up when it comes to my departure from SONY/Evo.

Thanks, all.

Col.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=106121033&postcount=1393

Maybe we should just stop speculating at this point since it also hurts people who are involved in all this.

Sony as a whole is under going restructuring, "trimming the fat" as they say. With that being said people come and go for various reasons all the time, this seems to be a very personal one. Lets not freak out and read way too much into things. Hell, even Don M./Jack T. leaving wasn't that big of a deal. People just loves drama.

While it is unusual to see so many high-profile employees of Sony studios leaves their positions within a relatively short span of time, we can't say what led to their departures with any certainty unless the parties involved were to divulge the whole truth. Some of the departures are more surprising (and perhaps suspicious) than others, but again, who's to say he didn't have a perfectly valid reason to leave of his own volition?

What I'm curious about is that Seth Killian also recently left the employ of Sony Santa Monica. It's a curious departure because his only contribution to any game of theirs that I'm aware of at this point was in a tertiary role to help with PlayStation All-Stars.

Sometime I wonder if it's the whole cycle of video game production, after a game is done they start cutting off people who less important. But man, naughty dog looks like an exodus.

Hrm. That's odd.