Amy Hennig Has Left Naughty Dog

Hey, maybe she was a pain in the ass to work with and everyone is glad she's gone. Creative people can be like that.

Just saying, we don't know and we will probably never know.

Dang, well that stinks. Of course we don't know the circumstances behind it and likely never will, but given her track record it's a sad day for Naughty Dog fans.

On the bright side I suspect her services will be in high demand, which means we'll see what she can do with a new (to her) IP most likely before too long. I hope so anyway.

Hope things work out for her.

So little info almost seems like a waist of time to post it till you got more to go on. Its nice to be up to date... but at this rate it feels like Twitter... Nothing to go on means that this... well... means little(as of right now).

Considering how big of a role she played in the Uncharted series, I find it hard to believe that they would fire her. My guess is there were some arguments over the creative direction of Uncharted 4 (which can't possibly come out this year if they're still making these kinds of decisions right?). Perhaps Druckerman and Straley came in after finishing The Left Behind dlc and pitched some ideas that other heads in the company liked better and Amy didn't wanna change it so she said screw this and left. It's pretty crazy that she's leaving but I'm sure it won't take long for her to land on her feet.

@cronodyne: do you, like, specialize in bad comments or something?

@saturdaynightspecials: I never heard anything but the nicest things about her.

Really sad to hear this news. I hope she has something else planned. I don't think Sony has any developers I really care about anymore. Good thing I didn't buy a PS4.

If you say the word "tarp" over and over again it starts to sound really weird!

Damn. I hope she ends up somewhere good.

I huge lost for sure but people exclaiming doom and gloom are being pretty offensive. One creative director left and this studio is fuck? So everyone else working at ND are just pieces of meat then? That type of thinking/comment is degrading to everyone involve in game development.

Also, SQ please hire this talent. God knows no other company is in need of a good writer as much as you do.

Amy pls make LoK gaem again pls

Shame. I dunno, I wasn't nearly as cold on Uncharted 3 as most people seem to be. I enjoyed that game a lot, particularly the story bits concerning sully and drake. It was a fun romp. Sooo, no matter where she ends up I think she will land on her feet and create some great work.

I'm with everyone though in hoping this wasn't an ugly situation. Always hate to see great talent treated poorly.

Damn, I thought Scoops might have some more details for us. Either way, definitely a story that deserves some representation on the site. Total bummer that she's gone from Naughty Dog. I hope she goes on to do more awesome things.

LoK's writing is still better than anything Druckmann wrote for The Last of Us. It's a bigger loss for ND than it is for her (although yes, of course, the loss of her job is not small by any means).

Don't like to speculate on the reason Hennig has left.

But this might not necessarily be a bad thing for either party, IF the reasons end up being mutual. There's a possibility of Hennig getting jaded after 3 games in the same series and a fresh set of eyes on Uncharted could be a good thing.

Hopefully Hennig lands somewhere new and exciting, preferably where she will be allowed to expand on her current excellent track record.

"Sony said the change would not impact the development of the upcoming Uncharted for PlayStation 4."

So.. I assume she was on the team, then? If she was pushed out, they're basically saying "Her being on the team made no difference one way or the other, she was useless." after pushing her out. If the pushing part is untrue, the above statement (if she was on the team) is even more ridiculous, cause then they're basically saying that an employee who left the company did nothing in one way or the other. Hardly an endorsement from a company she worked for.

I see statements like that all the time, and it has to suck a bit for some people to be disregarded in that way. Same when studios shut down and publishers try to make people believe the game is still going to be made, on schedule, and everything is the way the first studio and the fans intended and hoped for. How about that for giving employees a sense of being expendable... Job market blows for coders and artists as it is.. No reason to marginalize the work people put into projects that take up years of their lives.

Shitlords..

This will certainly put the next Naughty Dog release in a new light for me.

Well their goes any chance of the next few ND games being well written. Great job idiots you literally fired one of the most important people on your team.

you are crazy. maybe you should play it again and not believe in your nostalgia.

how does amy henning leaving Naughty Dog not have an impact on the next uncharted? she was lead writer/creative director lmao,

all good things turn to shit

Maybe I'm not an insider, but I imagined her to be the #1 most talented woman working for an AAA developer. She wrote my favorite video game of all time. If I were Microsoft, I'd be throwing money at her now. I bet she could do TV series or movies too. Really... what HAPPENED...?

How about she's just a good writer? She also wrote my favorite video game story of all time, the legacy of kain series and soul reaver.

If they "forced" her out, they are fucking stupid and uncharted will probably be ass and i bet we get a hamfisted last of us sequel(which the writing and VO was the only good thing about the game tbh),

Whoa, crazy. Hope she didn't get forced out or anything, that would suck.

Naughty Dog had better clear this up. Their lauded reputation isn't used to ugly rumors like these. And if she wasn't happy with the direction her characters were being taken, that doesn't sound too good either.

Maybe Uncharted 4 will have a deeper story line now. The story in the third installment got a bit soft with the characters.

And if Uncharted 4 story gets taken over by Neil and Bruce, that makes me want Uncharted 4 even more.

This is sad to hear, I'm not opposed to shifting the creative forces behind a franchise once it reaches its fourth instalment but at the same time I'd hate to think she was forced out against her will. Hopefully she'll find work somewhere else soon; she's always come across as a very talented writer and director with a lot of good ideas.

If people call doom and gloom on this, they should be preparing their bug out bags for all the Microsoft stuff that doesn't get reported here.

Also Uncharted 2 was effin fine. Uncharted 4 will be fine. The 1080p60 collection of the three console and two portable Uncharted games will be fine.

What the hell is going on in the game industry? There has been a bit too many of these stories lately: the closing of Irrational, the cancellation of a new IP from Sony Santa Monica, which apparently had been under development for 4 years, and where supposed to release on PS4, if I remember correctly, and now the firing of Amy Henning.

I really hope she wasn't pushed out of the company. That would be really sad and unfair in a way. I hope it was her own decision at least.

If she was responsible for the mess that was Uncharted 3, I can't say I'm sad about it.

that's a bummer,

that being said maybe she will move on to making a legacy of kain reboot

uncharted had its time

@larrydavis: You're trolling.

If she was responsible for the mess that was Uncharted 3, I can't say I'm sad about it.

While Uncharted 2 was a full step forward from 1, 3 was hardly a failure but more of just a reiteration of 2 in a different locale.

LOL what?!?!

My interest in the Uncharted series has dropped to zero.

She's American??? I thought she was English

why did i think she was english

Please be joining Ken Levine to make the Most Mind Blowing Game Evar!

Please be joining Ken Levine to make the Most Mind Blowing Game Evar!

Please be joining Ken Levine to make the Most Mind Blowing Game Evar!

Please be joining Ken Levine to make the Most Mind Blowing Game Evar!

Please be joining Ken Levine to make the Most Mind Blowing Game Evar!

@castiel: Irrational didn't make themselves worth the time and investment with their last two titles being 2007's Bioshock and 2013's Infinite and how those two sold, the SSM Stig project did not get far enough in development over those four years to continue it (seen similar cases happen with my own eyes, it stings but it's just about always due to management) and "fired" is just a rough way of saying "no longer employed for one reason or another".

Huge bummer; I really enjoyed the characters in the Uncharted.

I wish her all the best, someone of her talents should easily find a new gig.

@boiglenoight said:

Uncharted 3 was Uncharted 2 but worse in just about every way.

Uncharted series is fun, but amatuer in comparison to TLoU.

I am now much more excited to see Uncharted 4.

I still remember entire monologues and dialogues by heart. The writing is the only thing that does still hold up perfectly. I'm not saying the writing in TLoU is bad by any stretch, in fact it's great, but LoK is, to this day, in a class of its own.

I think it stands to both her and the company that the wording of her being forced out is immediately questioned.

Since she's been confirmed as leaving, I hope she finds good work wherever she goes. Throughout Uncharted the writing was always enjoyable.

Shame, Amy Hennig was with Naughty Dog for 10 years :/

This is great news, now she can go back to working on Legacy of Kain.

All this leaving stuff going on, jeez.

Go make a PC game, Amy!

I've never really been a fan of the Uncharted series but the story seemed like it was interesting. I should look up those making of videos that have been mentioned. It s a shame to see her go and I hope it was a clean break.

Also I had a moderate button on my comment, and I pressed it. I shouldn't have done that... I hope that doesn't go in the record book.

But who will keep the dogs in line, they are already at status naughty.

It always sucks to here about the devs of old being forced out of big companies.