In the world of gaming, Naughty Dog has made itself one of the most prominent names in the industry thanks to classic games like the Crash Bandicoot series and the Jak and Dexter saga. Some of their most recent franchises have even been successful enough to earn major motion picture adaptations, most prominently the upcoming Uncharted feature starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg that recently finished filming.
The latest major game released by Naughty Dog was The Last of Us Part II , which debuted in June 2020 as the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive in the console’s history. It received ten nominations at The Game Awards 2020 and has put Naughty Dog at the forefront of the gaming world.
In light of these major successes, Naughty Dog’s top executive recently announced a couple new promotions after an all-studio meeting.
NEWS
On the official Naughty Dog blog , company President Evan Wells announced three new promotions at the team’s most recent meeting.
Neil Druckmann will now be Co-President alongside Wells after holding the post of Vice President for three years. Alison Mori and Christian Gyrling will serve as Co-Vice Presidents after holding positions as Director of Operations and Co-Director of Programming, respectively.
Wells offered the following statement along with the announcement:
We have such an incredible team at Naughty Dog and being able to work alongside each and every one of them is especially meaningful these days. I feel proud of the team when I’m able to recognize their accomplishments and contributions to the studio. Please join me in giving them all a big congratulations!
WHAT THIS MEANS
Although this likely won’t signal any major changes from Naughty Dog going forward, Wells clearly has tremendous faith in all three promoted executives as they move forward in their new roles.
Druckmann’s claim to fame is helping create The Last of Us in 2013 before directing this year’s sequel game, which even earned a Golden Joystick Award for Ultimate Game of the Year. He also has Creative Director Credits on both of these games, as well as Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End , the final entry of the Uncharted series.
Gyrling has been with Naughty Dog for the past three years while Mori has experience as the Director of Operations at Sony Music . These three new additions to upper management should continue to steer Naughty Dog down the right path as the studio produces top quality games for fans worldwide.