Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells has announced he is retiring from the company at the end of 2023. His departure brings an end to his 25-year run at the Uncharted and The Last of Us studio, leaving quite a hole to fill. Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann said that his leave will mark the beginning of the next chapter at the studio. With this comes a slew of changes to the structure of its leadership team.
Wells will remain co-president with Druckmann until his departure. Additionally, Druckmann is picking up responsibilities as head of creative, saying that it will ensure he “will be able to invest in the future of our projects, creative vision, and overall business strategy.” He’ll be aided by Alison Mori, who is seeing a promotion to studio manager and head of operations in order to help maintain overall operations and finances at the company.
Meanwhile, Arne Meyer is overseeing cultural impact and wellbeing as head of culture and communications, and Christian Gyrling will become head of technology. Erick Pangilinan and Jeremy Yates will operate as co-heads of the art departments, while Anthony Newman becomes head of production and design. Each change to the leadership branch sees long-standing members of Naughty Dog moving to roles that the team feels will help benefit the company most.
Druckmann said the following a message to Naughty Dog staff today:
While Evan will be terribly missed, I am confident that our evolved Studio Leadership Team will allow us to thrive and grow in new areas. We wish Evan well in his well-earned retirement! He’s been extremely generous to stay on for much longer than he originally planned, working closely with us to thoroughly craft this new structure. I feel truly honored to have such a passionate, thoughtful, and talented team at Naughty Dog, and this growth reflects the ability to recognize the meaningful contributions from all departments, while setting up our studio to be more accessible, agile, and scalable.
Meanwhile, Evan Wells had plenty to say about retiring as co-president of Naughty Dog, including how he is confident in the studio’s future and its current projects. But he also waxed nostalgic about what the company has meant to his life:
I’ve been making games professionally for over 30 years, and Naughty Dog has been my home for over half my life! I’ve seen this studio grow from hire number 14 (me!) during the Crash 3 days in 1998 to over 400 Dogs today. Every major life milestone I can track with a Naughty Dog project – I met my wife during Crash Team Racing, we took our honeymoon after shipping Jak 2, had our first child E3 week when we announced Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and our second child was born right in the thick of development on The Last of Us.
In terms of video game releases, Naughty Dog is in an in-between period. If you leave out 2022’s The Last of Us remake, the studio’s last major project was The Last of Us Part II, which launched in 2020. Many assumed that the studio’s long-teased The Last of Us multiplayer project would be the next game to release. However, Naughty Dog confirmed in May that the online project still needs more time in the oven, with reports saying that most of its developers have been moved to other projects.
It’s not clear what exactly is going on behind the scenes at Naughty Dog. Let’s hope to learn more about its projects sooner than later as it restructures its leadership team and keeps working on whatever comes next.
