Bruce Straley Says Goodbye to Naughty Dog After 18 Years
Bruce Straley, the co-director of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and The Last of Us, will be leaving the acclaimed development team Naughty Dog after 18 years.
“This has been the hardest decision of my career. Naughty Dog is home,” wrote Straley in a blog post on Naughty Dog’s official site. “I’ve learned and grown so much from working with this incredible team. But after heading up three extremely demanding projects, and taking some extended time away from the office, I found my energy focusing in other directions, and I slowly realized this was the signal that it’s time to move on.”
Straley has been with Naughty Dog for more than 18 years and was the company’s 15th employee when he was hired as a texture artist on Crash Team Racing in 1999. He has since climbed the ranks within the company and has been instrumental in the success of many of Naughty Dog’s revered titles including Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us. We probably should have seen this coming when it was revealed that Neil Druckmann, his co-director on The Last of Us, was taking the full directing job on The Last of Us: Part Two.
Straley doesn’t provide details as to what he’ll be doing next but he is looking “forward to the discovery and to sharing it with you all soon.” It isn’t clear if he will continue to work on games but in a different capacity or if he intends to take his chance in a different medium.
“And a sincere thanks to the fans,” he concludes in his post. “Knowing I was a part of creating something that touched or moved any of you made this whole thing worthwhile — and now I, too, get to anticipate the next Naughty Dog masterpiece!”
Thanks for your all your hard work Bruce. We’re rooting for you on whatever it is you decide to do next.