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Former Naughty Dog and The Motive Game Designer Robert Ryan joins The Initiative as Senior Systems Designer

Oct 27, 2017
686
#1
Wow amazing get for Microsoft. Is Xbox trying to build their own Naughty dog now?

Robert Ryan has worked on uncharted series and the last of us.

 
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Oct 27, 2017
327
#15
Is it really news when someone who works at a videogame studio leaves that videogame studio to work at another? I'm legitimately curious. I wonder if banks have a forum they use when a director leaves Bank of America to go work at Wells Fargo.

I don't want this to come off as condescending - I'm legitimately curious if this should be news-worthy.
 
#20
i been telling y'all that this is 'the' studio for microsoft next gen

crazy amount of talent
The issue isn't talent, though. I wouldn't say that Microsoft have lacked talented individuals before.

Studios need a strong vision and cohesive dynamic to really flourish, and that's hard to nail down. Fingers crossed The Initiative manages to bring it all together on their first project.
 
Oct 8, 2018
2,717
#21
Wow amazing get for Microsoft. Is Xbox trying to build their own Naughty dog now?
No, they already said that they will be a small studio, naughty dog is like 450 devs now iirc.
Damn, all the OG multiplayer dudes from ND have left. Not a good look for TLOU2 multiplayer.
This person left naughty dog 2 years ago, I don’t see why would this mean anything for the state of the money mode.
 
Oct 27, 2017
2,078
#22
True - probably not until 2023. Perhaps even 2024. If it's their first game ever and it's AAA or AAAA then they need time.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see a small game from them sooner before they go fully into the big, AAA(A) game space. For a completely new studio it might be better to get their feet wet with something on the smaller side and iron out the kinks.
 
Oct 27, 2017
16,154
#25
Brian Westergaard - Lead Producer/Senior Producer on ROTR and Senior Managing Producer on God of War

Christian Cantamessa - Leader Writer and Designer on Red Dead Redemption

Tom Shepherd - Technical director at Rockstar games (RDR GTA)

Chris O'Neill - Senior level designer at Santa Monica and Kojima Production

Drew Murray - Lead designer at Insomniac games

Daniel Neuburger - Game director at Crystal Dynamics for 12 years.

Some of the people i remember that joined. Probably missed some.
 
Oct 27, 2017
2,933
Watertown, NY
#26
Damn, all the OG multiplayer dudes from ND have left. Not a good look for TLOU2 multiplayer.
And it starts. Or maybe just maybe their work on the multiplayer systems is in designing it is done. Usually people move on after those types of things are completed. Once the system is in place and works, it's up to QA, and support team to manage it as it get's updated/modified.

Always happens. You see people get hired with ramp up especially for multiplayer they get put on later on a project that's not multiplayer focused but has one.

Not a sign that MP does not work. If it's releasing soon then their initial work is done. Unless the game is not going to have MP all together. Which would suck but is not a deal breaker.
 
Oct 25, 2017
1,939
Malaysia
#27
Brian Westergaard - Lead Producer/Senior Producer on ROTR and Senior Managing Producer on God of War

Christian Cantamessa - Leader Writer and Designer on Red Dead Redemption

Tom Shepherd - Technical director at Rockstar games (RDR GTA)

Chris O'Neill - Senior level designer at Santa Monica and Kojima Production

Drew Murray - Lead designer at Insomniac games

Daniel Neuburger - Game director at Crystal Dynamics for 12 years.

Some of the people i remember that joined. Probably missed some.
Damn. They are absolutely going to kill it with whatever they are working on.
Definitely on track for the next masterpiece.
Hopefully MS will publish it to every platform so that every gamers around the world get to enjoy this masterpiece.
 
Oct 26, 2017
1,814
#35
Is it really news when someone who works at a videogame studio leaves that videogame studio to work at another? I'm legitimately curious. I wonder if banks have a forum they use when a director leaves Bank of America to go work at Wells Fargo.

I don't want this to come off as condescending - I'm legitimately curious if this should be news-worthy.
Ditto. This happens all the time... outside of famous talent, it feels a bit weird to follow the personal comings and goings of people.

Feels like quasi insider/promoters trying to promote/hype the credibility of new studios by proxy though, tbh. I understand why they’re doing it but it’s a little on the nose.
 
Oct 27, 2017
4,043
#36
No, they already said that they will be a small studio .
Naughty Dog also started small. They only started expanding rapidly after UC3 but that aside we have no idea how big they will be. Darrell has said in the past it all depends on the project they will work on. The core team could be 150 - 250 and that could be seen as a small team compared to 343i which is over 600 devs now..but don't forget they could also contract some jobs out as many studios do now.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,029
#44
Is it really news when someone who works at a videogame studio leaves that videogame studio to work at another? I'm legitimately curious. I wonder if banks have a forum they use when a director leaves Bank of America to go work at Wells Fargo.

I don't want this to come off as condescending - I'm legitimately curious if this should be news-worthy.
Depends on who it is. Imagine if it was Cory Barlog, aka Mr God of War, you don't think that would be news-worthy?
 
Oct 25, 2017
258
#46
Just pick a Sony studio and check where all devs have worked before. You will see a lot of them have also worked at well-known studios.

Look at Cloud Imperium Games (Star Citizen). A lot of devs and artist have been working for movies like Alien, Star Wars, Devs from EA, Ubisoft, Sony, even Guerrilla Games, Microsoft, CDPR and go on.
 
Jan 6, 2018
59
#47
Depends on who it is. Imagine if it was Cory Barlog, aka Mr God of War, you don't think that would be news-worthy?
As Cory is the Game Director on a game that won countless GOTY awards and is well known, that would definitely be news. This is just a designer who moved studios. Not to diminish his role or talent, but this isn’t news. Will be interesting to see what they all make.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,827
#49
Not saying that they are indie, but they’re not going to make halo quality titles, I can see the, maybe growing to 100 developers and make lower budget AAA titles
Their job listings and previous posts have said they're working on AAA/AAAA projects, staying small and agile in the AAA space isn't that small. Sucker Punch is small by typical big budget AAA standards, given that they talked about building games in a different way I assume they will use a lot of outsourcing to avoid the team becoming big and unwieldy. They have said they're currently building the core team out and they're close to finishing that, from there they will grow.
 
Mar 23, 2018
1,167
#50
Is it really news when someone who works at a videogame studio leaves that videogame studio to work at another? I'm legitimately curious. I wonder if banks have a forum they use when a director leaves Bank of America to go work at Wells Fargo.

I don't want this to come off as condescending - I'm legitimately curious if this should be news-worthy.
Agree. I really don't think these needs their own thread. These things happen all the time.