Annapurna’s video game team has resigned after failing to go independent
The entire staff of video game publishing label Annapurna Interactive is reported to have resigned following a dispute with the owner of the Annapurna business, Megan Ellison.
The executive team had been negotiating to spin the video game division off from parent company Annapurna Pictures, but when Ellison withdrew from the negotiations, Annapurna Interactive President Nathan Gray and other executives resigned – co-heads Deborah Mars and Nathan Vella were named – per Hollywood Reporter. Fortune has gone further in their reporting, with sources telling them that effectively the entire video games team at Annapurna has quit, with “around two dozen” staffers leaving in solidarity.
Ellison has named Hector Sanchez as the new president, Sanchez recently returning to the company after a stint at Epic Games, and having helped launch Annapurna Interactive in 2016. They will now integrate gaming in with the rest of Annapurna’s divisions, which include film, TV and theatre productions.
A spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that it had been exploring a spinoff, and that the lack of an agreement had led to the resignations, as well as stating that all existing games and projects will remain under Annapurna, though this is absolutely a chaotic moment for the company and will lead to plenty of upheaval for partners.
The company had become increasingly ambitious in the last couple years going from publishing indie titles like Sayonara Wild Hearts and Wattam to more lavish feeling productions like the cat adventure Stray. Indie games and niche interests have continued to be a big part of their line up, but the company recently penned a deal to provide 50% of the funding for Control 2, while also working together to bring Control and Alan Wake to film and television. That deal is still very much going to hold, but it’s likely that a lot of the names and faces that Remedy were familiar with are now totally different.
Source: Fortune, Hollywood Reporter
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