Annapurna Interactive’s leadership shuffle last week didn’t just see publisher heads Nathan Gary, Deborah Mars, and Nathan Vella resign from the company—all employees of the publisher have resigned too.
This stunning news comes from Bloomberg News games reporter Jason Schreier, and apparently follows a failed bid by Gary and his colleagues to spin the publisher out into an independent company. They had reportedly been negotiating with Annapurna founder Megan Ellison, who suddenly pulled out of talks, which sparked the resignations.
The only remaining executive is President of Interactive and New Media Hector Sanchez, who helped launch the publisher in 2016 and rejoined the company after a stint at Epic Games.
In a statement to Bloomberg News, Ellison stated that the publisher’s top priority is “continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition.” She said the company still intends to support its existing slate of games but also “expand its presence in the interactive space.”
Gary also supplied Bloomberg News with a statement from the collective group of exiting employees, saying the decision to leave was “one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.”
Annapurna has suddenly gone from hitmaker to an empty office
Annapurna Interactive has been responsible for publishing a string of game industry critical and commercial hits, including Stray, Outer Wilds, and Storyteller.
It’s hard to think of a comparable event in recent game development history. The exit leaves partners like Ivy Road, Blendo Games, and Mobius Digital without any point of contact, with Bloomberg reporting that the exodus has led to “chaos.”
There’s no indication if this will impact the internal game studio founded by the company in 2022 will be affected. The fate of South African support studio 24 Bit Games is also up in the air.
Game Developer has reached out to Annapurna Interactive for comment and will update this story when one is issued.
Update 9/17: This story has been updated to correctly identify the job title of President of Interactive and New Media Hector Sanchez