One of the industries biggest indie publishers has taken a massive hit today as the entirety of Annapurna's staff have resigned according to Bloomberg after a dispute with the company's owner.
The report states that Annapurna Interactive president Nathan Gary was in negotiations with Annapurna founder Megan Ellison to spin the gaming segment off as its own company. When Ellison decided to pull away from the negotiations Gary resigned which prompted the entire team to follow him out the door.
"All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,'' Gary and the resigned staff said in a joint statement to Bloomberg. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."
During the negotiations Annapurna has hired former Epic Games boss Hector Sanchez as its president of interactive and new media. It seems Sanchez will now take over the gaming division and has already spoken to partner developers to ensure that staff will be replaced and they will Honor their existing contracts.
"Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition," Ellison told Bloomberg. "We're committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater.”
Annapurna Interactive is known in the industry as one of the premier indie publishers having published titles such as Stray, Neon White, Cocoon and more. Just last month the company announced a partnership with developer Remedy for future development of their IPs Control and Alan Wake.
