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Naughty Dog’s Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were not involved in the departure of Uncharted veteran Amy Hennig, the studio’s co-presidents have confirmed.
On Tuesday this week Hennig’s departure was confirmed, with IGN reporting that she had been “forced out” by The Last of Us duo Druckmann and Straley.
Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra have now issued a statement on the developer’s official website, setting the record straight – to some extent – and claiming the story had been unprofessionally misreported.
Full statement:
“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 rumours 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.”
Hennig was heading up Uncharted 4 for PS4. It’s not clear if Straley and Druckmann will take over as was originally reported. Naughty Dog hasn’t confirmed that is taking place.
