Amy Hennig is best known for spearheading the creation of Uncharted at Naughty Dog, but her career seemed unclear after her Star Wars project at Visceral Games was cancelled. However, it's now been announced the writer/director has been scooped up by Skydance Media, an entertainment company most famous for its Hollywood blockbusters like Mission Impossible: Fallout and Annihilation. Hennig joins the company, along with EA alumnus Julian Beak, to help the movie studio branch out into the games industry.
As you might expect from the woman behind Nathan Drake and the Legacy of Kain series, the new development team will focus on story-driven titles, with "state-of-the-art computer graphics to provide the visual fidelity of television and film".
David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, seems excited to be expanding his company into games: "The interactive media landscape is continually changing and Amy and Julian are creative and visionary leaders of this evolution,” he said. “Together, we will create within this new sphere the same type of event-level entertainment experiences that Skydance is known for in features and television."
Hennig and Beak are now hiring for this new game studio, but it sounds like they want to keep it a relatively small operation. It also seems the size of the team's games will be relatively small, as Hennig wants to create "shorter form, focused, narrative interactive content" -- something she feels under-represented in games right now.
We're looking forward to seeing what this new studio will produce. It'll probably take a while for any new projects to be formally announced, but the pedigree is strong already, so we have high hopes for this new venture. You can read more on the subject in Venture Beat's interview.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 15
More narrative based games? Yes please!
lets hope this goes better than her tenure at EA did
Ellison is nothing but a cash-grabbing suit out to exploit whatever IP he can with a 'built in' audience.
You can trace every s**tty Terminator sequel venture right back to him and his sister.
This won't go well.
We may never know but I wonder why she left ND? You would think Sony would be keen to keep someone of her calibre in-house even if it's with a different team.
Well, the very best of luck to her! Looking forward to seeing what she and her colleagues come up with.
@KALofKRYPTON That true, I was not happy to read that he's involved. Isnt his sister in charge of Anna Purna Interactive? They published a few games that Sony dropped.
@3Above She is.
@KALofKRYPTON well said this is not going to end well.
I think Amy was one of many moving parts at ND if she was as good people say she would still be at EA I think over hype surrounds this lady.
@David187 I don't doubt her creative talents. But stepping in to a creative role under a soulless-husk like Ellison is going to be tough I reckon.
@KALofKRYPTON I will believe it again when she makes something out of ND & so far that has not gone great which has made me start to feel like I do.
@David187 I'm inclined to agree. Sometimes we over hype these "Auteurs" forgetting that it take a team of talented people to make great games. Looking at Mighty no. 9 and Death Stranding, sometimes these visionaries really need their teams to balance them out. I think Amy is talented but need an equally talented team to make great content.
@3Above that is how I feel 👍
@3Above
Except Death Stranding is a phenomenal game with a great team behind it...
Hennig isn't working at EA because EA wanted to take the Star Wars IP into a live service direction at the time, and Hennig was working on a single player Star Wars game.
Remember, this was pre-Battlefront 2.
Go Amy!!!!!! Hoping for the best!!!!
lets hope she dont go woke.
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