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God of War Ragnarok art director Rafael Grassetti leaves Santa Monica Studio after 10 years

Who’s replacing him?
david jaffe. guy has some serious artistic sensibilities:

30086106266_a6257d408d_z.jpg
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
He did some fantastic work. Whoever they've got to replace him (and they did hire someone for the Qrt Director position after a year+ of having that up on their careers page) has some big shoes to fill.

Probably will be whoever is leading the art on Barlog's project.
 
Track record of a studio matters. Sony Santa Monica is one of the best in the industry. So they get the benefit of the doubt. Microsoft has bungled way too many of its own studios to get that. Once they release good games consistently then the outrage will die down
The janitor could leave a MS studio and it would be Phil Spencer's fault here.

People leave studios all the time. Good talented people have ambitions and want to be the man. They want to run their own studios, and become rich if possible.

The decision of Jade Raymond to set up Haven Studios was for what reason? Money. They sold off Haven before it even released the name of the game they had in production. Why? Money.
 
Be the change you want to see on the forum. The next time a celebrated Xbox studio has a veteran art director retire or leave, make the thread.
Nah, very few people leaving a studio hurts the studio. It's the culture of the studio that creates the game. When Jaffe left, did that spell the end of SSM? No, they actually did even better.

If Todd Howard left Bethesda, or if Tim Schaefer left Double Fine, then those studios would be in trouble.
It doesn't mean they could never make a good game, but those people have defined those studios.
 

Three

Gold Member
Nah, very few people leaving a studio hurts the studio. It's the culture of the studio that creates the game. When Jaffe left, did that spell the end of SSM? No, they actually did even better.

If Todd Howard left Bethesda, or if Tim Schaefer left Double Fine, then those studios would be in trouble.
It doesn't mean they could never make a good game, but those people have defined those studios.
What exactly are you upset about? Jaffe didn't leave in the middle of a project. He hasn't been involved since GOW2 shipped. If key people leave during development then that project might be in development hell. I do wonder what you're referring to though that's got you in persecution mode.
 
What exactly are you upset about? Jaffe didn't leave in the middle of a project. He hasn't been involved since GOW2 shipped. If key people leave during development then that project might be in development hell. I do wonder what you're referring to though that's got you in persecution mode.
I'm not upset that Jaffe left at all. I'm saying that it didn't hurt the studio, and infact the games got better after he left. He is an example that people leaving doesn't normally hurt a studio.

My issue is that if this was someone leaving an xbox studio there would be 20 posts about how MS can't manage their studios, and people don't want to work at xbox game studios.
Don't make out that isn't the case.
I was saying keep that same energy here. If it's a sign that a studio is in turmoil when people leave, and you were talking shit that it was evidence that shit wasn't right there, then the same must be true here as well.
 
What does Xbox have to do with this?

SSM last game was extremely successful both critically and financially. I doubt him leaving has anything to do with the studios failure.
Yeah. Playground Games last game was also highly acclaimed, one of the best racing games ever released, as massive success yet when one of their guys left it was a negative about xbox.
 

Three

Gold Member
I'm not upset that Jaffe left at all. I'm saying that it didn't hurt the studio, and infact the games got better after he left. He is an example that people leaving doesn't normally hurt a studio.

My issue is that if this was someone leaving an xbox studio there would be 20 posts about how MS can't manage their studios, and people don't want to work at xbox game studios.
Don't make out that isn't the case.
I was saying keep that same energy here. If it's a sign that a studio is in turmoil when people leave, and you were talking shit that it was evidence that shit wasn't right there, then the same must be true here as well.
I'm asking what specifically you're upset about regarding what somebody has said about a MS studio departure. What's got you in this persecution mode? If it's the case that some key people left a project while the project was in development then that's a little different to Jaffe leaving after GoW2, or perhaps Todd leaving after starfield or whatever.
 
Yeah. Playground Games last game was also highly acclaimed, one of the best racing games ever released, as massive success yet when one of their guys left it was a negative about xbox.

I wasn't talking about Xbox. And if I was I wouldn't use playground games as an example of failure. It would be like 343 or the Initiative that would fit thet bill. Maybe Arkane Studios if we see people leave the company after Redfall failing.

Definitely not Playground games though.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Oh look, people move onto new jobs and opportunities after shipping a big game.

Good on him, I'm sure he snagged a wage increase.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Yeah. Playground Games last game was also highly acclaimed, one of the best racing games ever released, as massive success yet when one of their guys left it was a negative about xbox.
Because it wasn't one of the guys. Because it was 6 leaders of the studios, including the co-founder, that left together and set up a new studio.
  1. Tom Butcher, Lead Producer.
  2. Matt Craven, Technical Director
  3. Gareth Harwood, Technical Art Director
  4. Fraser Stachan, Audio Director
  5. Ben Penrose, Art Director
  6. Mike Brown, Creative Director
The 2 situations are obviously very different.

Besides, no need to even bring that up in this thread.
 
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Fess

Member
Isn't that colliding with copyright? His NFT dreams will end up with a 30% payment for eternity to Nintendo.
It’s just his fan art. But it reminds me of a situation in the youth of internet when my brother did a simple ”my first html page” and put a Mickey Mouse clip art on the front page. Disney’s lawyers contacted him and told him to remove the art asap or bad things would happen. 😅
 
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Pedro Motta

Member
Well there is a chance. The Initiave is around Santa Monica right?
Jim Carrey Chance GIF


Yeah, he leaves one of the best studios in the world to get into another that all the leads are leaving and the project had to be handed to another studio to make it work. lol
 
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