Ben-DutkaEven the great Naughty Dog isn't immune to such things as internal strife.
According to an IGN report , writer Amy Hennig has left the Uncharted developer. She was writing and leading the development of the new Uncharted for the PlayStation 4.
Apparently, her last day was yesterday and she was allegedly "forced out" by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley. For last year's award-winning The Last Of Us , Druckmann was creative director and Straley was game director. Hennig had worked at the studio for over a decade and it's unfortunate that she's leaving, but will it impact the development of Uncharted 4 ? After all, a critical piece of the puzzle is missing now.
Still, the answer is "no," as Sony has issued the following statement:
"We can confirm that Amy Hennig has left Naughty Dog. Amy has made significant contributions to the game industry and we appreciate all she has done for Naughty Dog. The development timeline of Uncharted will not be impacted."
It'll be interesting to see where Hennig ends up. She definitely delivered some great stories over the years and we wish her the best!
I hope she's heading to BioWare. I believe that's a good place to be for skilled script writers.
Not when the writers get death threats. She should go with crystal dynamics and make a new soul reaver.
She should go to crystal dynamics and write the next Tomb Raider, she's exactly what that series is missing.
I have never finished a bioware game. I don't see what's so great about them.
I don't like that news at all, she was a good scenario writer. I wish we had details on why this happened, but I guess it's better to look toward the future. She should go to 2K and write the new Bioshock.
Ooooh… Now that is another good suggestion. But is she the right writer for that kind of story? I'm not so sure… I kinda feel that the BioWare style stories are more her thing.
Last edited by Beamboom on 3/5/2014 12:07:47 PM
Hard to say unless I knew about more than her work with Uncharted. For all we know she had a hankering for sci fi fantasy in her college years 🙂
I'd like to have lunch with her anyway.
It's a shame. She was a pretty good writer. Then again, if Druckmann and Straley take over, I won't complain… not at all 🙂
Last edited by Masszt3r on 3/5/2014 12:27:02 PM
I'm thinking she might go to Tell Tale. Maybe they want to expand in doing an original story. She'd be perfect to head that.
That would be the best possible outcome IMO (besides going back to Naughty Dog)
If Telltale could only use some of their recent success by buying a modern engine for their new games!
She will quickly find new work. I just hope it's for a game I enjoy.
She won't have a problem finding a new home.
However this may not affect Uncharted time line but I'd be very reluctant to say it won't affect it's overall quality. This really isn't a good thing for ND. I'm sure they'll be fine but she did more than we probably recognize. She's one of the main reasons the Uncharted series is so great.
I'm gonna be honest here and say between what Sony Santa Monica just went through and now this (although only one person), could be trouble for 2 of Sony's best assets.
Maybe Neil Druckmann got to high on himself after the success of The Last of Us. If so that's to bad. Can't imagine why they'd "force" her out otherwise.
I don't think people realize the type of effect this has on large companies. Not only her being gone, is there something missing but it also effects the people who worked closely with her. They are effected emotionally and it creates an unfamiliar type of atmosphere. Confidence levels fluctuate in individual abilities, Imean this could be a huge blow. I thought ND was impenetrable. This is not a good day. Guess we will have to see how they handle it. The success of Uncharted 4 wont be a good way to judge though since it's on its way. Well get a good sense of how this played out in their following 2 or 3 games.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 3/5/2014 1:22:03 PM
As talented as she is, ND has so many unbelievably talented people working there so I think they'll remain a top tier developer for many years to come.
As for the circumstances of her departure, we never know the full story.
I agree. My spidey sense tells me there was a clash between Druckmann and Amy. Just speculation, but fairly self-evident when connecting the dots.
Well of course I think ND will still deliver amazing games. I'm just saying this will effect their games and I think we will notice the departure in future releases. Good or bad.
Oh ya, when the founder of your biggest franchise leaves it's bound to have an impact. I'm just confident that ND will still deliver.
A sad day for uncharted fans.
Very much. As much as I loved TLOU, it didn't replace U2, or even U1, for me. If it weren't for Amy's writing, Uncharted would've just been a pretty shooting gallery and skirmishes. I'm pretty sure there was clash between Amy and Druckmann. If I had to pick from the two of them, I would've still kept Amy.
I'm with you Shams.
What exactly did she write? I feel like this won't matter much. Neil is the guy who I'd be worried about leaving ND.
Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, legacy of kain, soul reaver series. She has written quite a bit.
Where have you been. Most ND games you play she's involved.
U3 suffered without Druckmann and Strailey assisting Amy IMO. Was still good, but had a lot of reused, missing elements/wasn't as well paced, etc.
Maybe something like that was happening with U4 but to a worse extent.
Amy is a good writer and has a good sense of character and story overall. She's also great at capturing those subtle, quite moments as well. She'll find a new home somewhere and rock the house again. Feel bad she's out of the job, since she has a lot to do with really putting ND on the map beyond them just making fun 3D platformers.
Wonder why she was forced out though. She seems like a super sweet lady and is an inspiration in my own work. It'd be interesting to get her take on what happened.
I dont think it is that sad to be honest. I loved uncharted 1 and 2, but the story for uncharted 3 was really bad in my opinion. Motives for the old lady, the whole chemical warfare thing they were planning with the stuff from the desert atlantis, going after sully and having sully be a straw dummy…. I dunno the whole story just felt like it had a lot of holes to me and was just a big step back from the others.
It was still presented really well but the overall story was kind of meh to me.
I'm sure she will find work, and I have no problem with the guys who did the story for The Last of Us taking over.
WTF would you kick out such a successful acomplished writer?
come on uncharted 3 was her best work i was so looking forward to seeing her new work!
man she wud have not problems find work she work for ND for crying out loud any studio that makes story driven games wud want her so yeah not too worried about that but i hope the unchartered still turns out great amazing awsomeness as ND seems to produce time and time again.
happy gaming =)
I was actually hoping for her to leave ND and go back to Crystal Dynamics to contunue the Legacy of Kain series. First part complete, hope the 2nd part will be too 🙂
Very sad day for Naughty Dog and Uncharted, i seriously hope she wasn't forced out as rumored, that would just be moronic and the worst move Naughty Dog has ever made.
I just hope Uncharted will be able to stay as good without her, because graphics etc aside story & characters are the best parts of the Uncharted games!