Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells has now announced his retirement from the developer after 25 years.
It has been confirmed in a new statement by Wells that he is leaving Naughty Dog, leaving Druckmann as the sole president of the company along with the Studio Leadership Team. His statement says that he believes that Druckmann and the rest of Naughty Dog will “steer the studio into a successful future.” He will be leaving at the end of this year.
“I’ve been making games professionally for over 30 years, and Naughty Dog has been my home for over half my life!” he said. “I’ve seen this studio grow from hire number 14 (me!) during the Crash 3 days in 1998 to over 400 Dogs today. Every major life milestone I can track with a Naughty Dog project – I met my wife during Crash Team Racing, we took our honeymoon after shipping Jak 2, had our first child E3 week when we announced Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and our second child was born right in the thick of development on The Last of Us.”
Wells stated that it will be hard for him not to see the current Naughty Dog projects through to completion after his departure, but he has no doubt that the team in place will ensure its delivery in a way that will set industry standards and exceed all expectations.