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[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Shaun Escayg, who wrote and designed the online brawler after joining from Naughty Dog, confirmed on Monday that he had rejoined his former employer.

In his previous role at Naughty Dog, Escayg was a cinematic animator for The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, and game director for standalone spin-off Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

Avengers launched in August 2020. Square Enix confirmed in November that Avengers had yet to turn a profit two months after release following “slow initial sales”.

The live service game’s performance suffered partly due to technical problems present at launch, which developer Crystal Dynamics attempted to address in a series of post-release updates.

Naughty Dog’s co-president said last week that the Last of Us studio is still struggling to fully implement a multi-project development strategy, and revealed that it currently has several games in pre-production.

The PlayStation developer first attempted to embrace a multi-project model following the completion of 2009’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, with designers Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann establishing a second team to create The Last of Us, alongside the group working on a third Uncharted.

However, Evan Wells told the AIAS in a new Game Maker’s Notebook podcast (transcribed by VGC) that Naughty Dog was ultimately unable to maintain two full productions, with one project inevitably gaining favour and pulling resources from the other, and it’s an issue the studio still struggles with today.

Marvel’s Avengers director has left to re-join Naughty Dog | VGC

Shaun Escayg was previously the director of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[DigitalScrap]

Man, after he came up with the travesty that is Avengers, I'm surprised they actually took him back honestly. I guess back at ND is where he belongs though, because he has done great work there in the past.

 

[Warnen]

I’d leave avengers off my resume.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Sometimes its better to be a role player than the main bitch.

 

[Fbh]

Nice.

Lost Legacy was the best ND last gen (IMO), hopefully Avengers doesn't hurt his chances of being put in charge of more ND projects.

 

[Clintizzle]

Naughty Dog sounds like a great place to work. There have been soo many people who left and have gone back.

Talent retention is very important and both Sony and MS need to prioritize it if a solid 1st party output is going to be the differentiator this gen.

 

[Perrott]

Nice.

Lost Legacy was the best ND last gen (IMO), hopefully Avengers doesn't hurt his chances of being put in charge of more ND projects.

He is now creative director over at Naughty Dog. It is pretty clear that he is leading a project of his own.

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

 

[SLB1904]

Someone should tell him about crunch at ND

 

[Pedro Motta]

Someone should tell him about crunch at ND

He’s only interested in crunch their enemies, see them tremble before you and hear the lamentation of their women.

 

[MrJTeera]

“Welcome Back, Shaun!” the voices shouted in unison but Shaun couldn’t see where it’s from.

An eerie cold air seeped through the door cracks as it closed shut behind him.

He walked towards an empty reception desk. Behind it, an old picture of the company team with him in it. Though, he could not remember when he attended that photoshoot.

 

[VictorVectors]

“Welcome Back, Shaun!” the voices shouted in unison but Shaun couldn’t see where it’s from.

An eerie cold air seeped through the door cracks as it closed shut behind him.

He walked towards an empty reception desk. Behind it, an old picture of the company team with him in it. Though, he could not remember when he attended that photoshoot.

"Welcome back, Shaun"

Post of the month. Damn.

Has he always been there? Did he ever leave? Some say you can hear him screaming his way through the in the frozen maze at night. Well done, man. Well done.

 

[Shmunter]

Jason! Jason!!!!

 

[SSfox]

Great, now ND need Amy Henning and Bruce Straley to come back and replace Neil Druckmann.

 

[PleaseWaitStation4]

Mission "Destructo" accomplished

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

Man, after he came up with the travesty that is Avengers, I'm surprised they actually took him back honestly. I guess back at ND is where he belongs though, because he has done great work there in the past.

Some people just work well with the correct team. Maybe this guy is one of them, and ND knows that.


One bad thing on your resume doesn't't mean companies should neglect what he did before, especially since that company is the one he worked on before that bad thing.

 

[caffeware]

killin the comp from within?

 

[Entroyp]

They always come back.

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Please give me Lost Legacy 2!!! Thanks.

 

[Kagero]

I enjoyed the single player in Avengers.

 

[Cyber_hunter026]

“Welcome Back, Shaun!” the voices shouted in unison but Shaun couldn’t see where it’s from.

An eerie cold air seeped through the door cracks as it closed shut behind him.

He walked towards an empty reception desk. Behind it, an old picture of the company team with him in it. Though, he could not remember when he attended that photoshoot.

"Midnight, stars and you begins to play as the photo comes into focus. showing a smiling version of himself in a Time so lost to memory"

 

[boutrosinit]

Man, after he came up with the travesty that is Avengers, I'm surprised they actually took him back honestly. I guess back at ND is where he belongs though, because he has done great work there in the past.

Remember; there is a HUGE difference to leading a homegrown IP, to leading one owned by a billion dollar corporation subject to approvals through a list of stakeholders.

Not even remotely the same beast and few if any people can surf both kinds of wave well. Also, "Director" isn't as whole-owned a role in games as the movie industry would have you believe. Mostly a vision leading with the ability to sell that vision to many different types of people. Totally different in a massive, multi-tiered corp structure VS a well-respected dev team that pretty much gets free reign creatively (or so it appears).

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Fuck you Jim Ryan.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

It was for the best. Avengers was a big yikes.

 

[Pagusas]

Imagine having one of the biggest properties in the last 20 years in your hands with a huge budget and tons of talent all around you... and making the game he did... just yikes.

 

[Kerotan]

Nice.

Lost Legacy was the best ND last gen (IMO), hopefully Avengers doesn't hurt his chances of being put in charge of more ND projects.

Absolutely fantastic game.

 

[DenchDeckard]

This is amazing news. Uncharted lost legacy was absolutely top tier and better than uncharted 4 in every way. I loved it!

Bring on more!

 

[Cyborg]

He did good at ND.

 

[JerryinSoCal]

Man, after he came up with the travesty that is Avengers, I'm surprised they actually took him back honestly. I guess back at ND is where he belongs though, because he has done great work there in the past.

It's not his fault it was a service game, I'm pretty sure he had more to do with the narrative driven stuff in the game rather than the overall type of game it had to be etc.

 

[SJRB]

Marvel's Avengers director Shaun Escayg (Uncharted: The Lost Legacy)

 

[Krizalidx11]

Sony killed Th Avengers game with that Spiderman exclusive deal and the man quit to join Sony again

If you can't beat them, ask them to hire u again

 

[Alright]

Looks like he escaygped before he was tainted with the failure of avengers

 

[regawdless]

DRUCKMANN

 

[GrayFoxPL]

 

[KingT731]

It's not his fault it was a service game, I'm pretty sure he had more to do with the narrative driven stuff in the game rather than the overall type of game it had to be etc.

Which is why he states that he worked on the campaign specifically on his his Twitter account.

 

[Yoboman]

Maroons are trash

 

[kuncol02]

Marvel’s Avengers director has left to re-join Naughty Dog | VGC

Shaun Escayg was previously the director of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Another day, another bad news for Sony. \s

 

[cormack12]

Probably as a result of all those senior positions being created at ND to retain talent. Looks to have been a good move and come at a good time since Avengers is bombing hard.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Am I the only one online that actually enjoyed the Avengers game? I only played the single player campaign, but I enjoyed it.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Am I the only one online that actually enjoyed the Avengers game? I only played the single player campaign, but I enjoyed it.

Most people agreed that the campaign was fine. But the issue is that there is nothing beyond that.