The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, the publisher of multiple celebrated titles, including the well-known cat game Stray, reportedly resigned this month after a dispute with its owner.
According to a new Bloomberg report, the publisher's president, Nathan Gary, and his team had been negotiating with Annapurna's owner, Megan Ellison, to spin off the video game division as an independent entity. The negotiations ended when Ellison pulled out, prompting Gary and the other executive to resign. The rest of the staff followed shortly after.
In a statement provided to Bloomberg, Ellison confirmed that Annapurna's priority is to continue supporting its developer and publishing partners during this transition. The company is also committed to expanding its presence in the interactive space by continuing to look for new opportunities.
Development teams partnered with Annapurna Interactive are obviously scrambling to understand what this all means for future projects. New President of Interactive and New Media at Annapurna, Hector Sanchez, one of the publisher's co-founders who was brought back last month, reportedly told developers that all contracts will be honored and staff will be replaced.
Annapurna Interactive provides various services to partners, including funding, quality assurance, localization, and marketing, so it's understandable the confusion among developers whose projects may never see the light of day if the publisher folds. Among the successful games published by the company are the aforementioned Stray, Cocoon, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, and many others.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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