Annapurna Interactive Staff Resigns Following Dispute With Studio Owner

A brand new report reveals that executives and staff from the video game publisher Annapurna Interactive had resigned from the publisher sometime this month. The shocking departure of staff walking out on the publisher comes amid the fallout of negotiations between Annapurna Interactive president Nathan Gary, Gary's team, and co-founder Megan Ellison, setting off mass resignations.

According to a reporting from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who first broke the news on 12th September 2024, Gary and his team were in talks with Ellison "to spin off the video-game division" as an independent company. However, Ellison abruptly abandoned talks, and Gary, other executives, and Annapurna staffers resigned.

Bloomberg shared the joint statement from Gary and the Annapurna staffers: "All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned. This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make, and we did not take this action lightly.”

As of writing, a representative for Annapurna Interactive confirmed to Bloomberg that the "spin-off" was looked into; however, they stated that all parties involved had "failed to reach an agreement." This resulted in the resignations of Gary and other executives, with fellow studio staff members walking out, too.

Ellison provided a statement to Bloomberg News shortly thereafter stating that despite the recent mass staff resignation, Annapurna Interactive will aim to continue to support the "developer and publishing partners during this transition. “We’re committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater."

The mass resignation of staffers has left many partnered developers and studios in limbo, questioning what is to come moving forward. Remedy's Communications Director, Thomas Puha, thanked fans on Twitter for their support, stating that Remdy's deal with Annapurna is with their media arm, Annapurna Pictures, not with the video game publisher.

He later added that their deal with Annapurna Pictures is with regards to their Alan Wake and Control's audiovisual licensing rights, as stated in Remdy's Investor's announcement in August 2024. Additionally, this deal sees Remedy retaining "full IP rights for Control and Alan Wake," and per Puha's Twitter post, they'll be self-publishing Control 2, which the latter was announced in 2022.