Twenty-five Annapurna Interactive employees resigned from the company in September following a dispute with Annapurna Pictures founder Megan Ellison, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Annapurna Interactive is the video game publishing arm of Annapurna Pictures; now former Annapurna Interactive president Nathan Gary was reportedly negotiating with Ellison to go independent with the game publishing division. Gary and two other co-leads of Annapurna Interactive left the company earlier in September, The Hollywood Reporter wrote at the time. Per the Bloomberg report, the other staff members followed later.
“All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,’’ Gary and the former Annapurna Interactive workers told Bloomberg in a join statement. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.”
The details of the dispute have not yet been reported.
An Annapurna Interactive spokesperson told Bloomberg that its contracted games and projects will stay with Annapurna. Still, news of the resignation left a lot of questions regarding the state of the publisher and its contracted developers: Without any staff, how is Annapurna Interactive to support its newly released and upcoming games? Onlookers asked, too: What about the recently announced partnership with Remedy Enteratainment? Remedy and Annapurna announced in late August that the companies would be co-financing Control 2 and developing TV and movie adaptations for Remedy’s Alan Wake and Control series.
Remedy communications director Thomas Puha posted to X on Thursday to confirm that nothing is changing with Control 2 or its licensing rights. The deal with Annapurna is tied to Annapurna Pictures, not Annapurna Interactive, he said. Control 2 is being self-published by Remedy. “By backing Remedy’s move toward self-publishing, we’re putting our faith in their vision,” said Annapurna Interactive co-founder and president of interactive and new media Hector Sanchez, who recently returned to the company after leaving for Epic Games.
Several other studios have confirmed that their games remain unaffected by the mass resignation at Annapurna Interactive, including Team Ivy Road’s Wanderstop, Matt Newell’s Lushfoil Photography Sim, and Great Ape Games’ The Lost Wilds.
Annapurna Interactive is one of the most — if not the most — prestigious game publishers, known for putting out award-winning games like What Remains of Edith Finch, Gorogoa, Outer Wilds, Cocoon, and Stray. As a publisher, it’s typically responsible for funding, marketing, and and quality assurance.
About Author
