Sources have confirmed to IGN that Stig Asmussen has left Sony Santa Monica. Asmussen – commonly known in the community only as “Stig” – joined Sony Santa Monica in 2003.
Asmussen came to Sony Santa Monica by way of Midway, where he worked for four years following his graduation from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. At Sony Santa Monica, he worked on the God of War trilogy, first as an environment artist (God of War), then as Art Director (God of War II), and finally as Creative Director (God of War III).
He didn’t work on God of War: Ascension, Sony Santa Monica’s most recent internally developed title. He was purportedly working on a separate project unrelated to God of War, one that may have been cancelled following a round of layoffs at Sony Santa Monica several weeks ago. Whether he left Sony Santa Monica on his own accord before or after the studio shed employees, or departed as part of the layoffs is unknown.
Asmussen is reportedly interviewing at several studios.
We've reached out to Sony and Asmussen for comment, and will update if and when we hear back.
A couple of weeks ago, they apparently had layoffs at Sony Santa Monica, as well as supposedly canceled their new IP project, which Stig was working on.
I can't say I'm looking forward to another God of War game. I can't even imagine how a new AAA game, that's not God of War from that team, would have looked. The most recent SSM game, that I can remember is Starhawk, and that certainly didn't do too well. Le sigh.
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