Amy Hennig is an oft-mentioned power-house woman in gaming. She’s an incredible creative director and writer who was with Naughty Dog for years before moving on to Visceral Games. She had been working on Uncharted 4 before she left, but after her departure the studio decided to make quite a few changes.
During a Q&A panel at MetroCon (thanks VG247), Nolan North decided to spill the beans on many many things. Seriously, if you have an hour to kill and want to see him talk about a bunch of insider info, watch that video. One of the things he talked about was how Uncharted 4’s development was set back eight months following Amy Hennig’s departure from Naughty Dog.
We had shot 8 months of her story and it was all thrown away. The Last of Us guys came in, and you have to understand, new producers, new people, they want to do it. I don’t know what happened exactly.
When Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog in March 2014, there were rumours that she was pushed out. People weren’t saying much, but it was implied that The Last of Us team (Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley) forced her out of the company. Sony didn’t have much to say at the time, but they did confirm that the development timeline for Uncharted would not be impacted. Hm, I wonder if that was a complete lie seeing as eight months of work was thrown out and the game has subsequently been delayed out of 2015.
Uncharted 4 still looks great and I’m sure fans will be incredibly happy with the end result, but I don’t like hearing about this kind of behaviour from studios. It’s simply petty and there are better ways to merge creative visions to get the best out of a project.
Last Updated: June 30, 2015
Admiral Chief's Adventure
June 30, 2015 at 08:42
Idiotic
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 30, 2015 at 08:45
“creative differences”. Still, nobody really knows. Bethesda threw out months of work on Doom before starting from scratch.
K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)
June 30, 2015 at 08:51
Everything we’ve seen for Uncharted 4 so far looks amazing, so I see no reason to question this decision as yet.
DragonSpirit009
June 30, 2015 at 08:55
Is it really that hard to work in as a team then?
Jonah Cash
June 30, 2015 at 09:01
If the new guys wanted to go in a different direction to hers, then I would rather scrap her plan and start from fresh. If I am going to put my name to something it better be all my ideas and execution. That way if it is screwed up you can come to me, but forcing me to use someone else’s idea and 8 months worth of prep then don’t come to me when it is screwed.
Hammersteyn
June 30, 2015 at 09:08
EA would have sold that 8 months of work as DLC
Goal9
June 30, 2015 at 09:51
Amy Hennig doesnt get enough credit. You can thank her for the Legacy of Kain series alone to understand her credentials. Im sure the new producers are entitled to redo stuff, but removing her work is more of a loss than a plus.
Galbedir
June 30, 2015 at 13:41
The fact that she wrote and directed that entire series, makes her a God in the video game industry to me. Honestly, one of the greatest series and stories I’ve played to date.
Ragnar The Vengeful
June 30, 2015 at 10:27
If they decide to dump 8 months and head out on a new direction rather than trying to jam incomplete ideas with new ones, who am I to complain. Starting from the top will give a more consistent feel to the entire story. Shoving her out the door was idiotic though.
Kardes21
September 13, 2015 at 15:10
Who knows, maybe Amy Hennig wanted to bring the series in a completely different direction and add a breath of fresh air to the series, which could have undermined it and frustrated fans. There’re always two sides to a story or more, so, I’ll withhold judgement personally. That said, as a creative person myself, being pushed away from something I created and nurtured, and have had so much success doing, is extremely painful, and trusting a team with little to no experience with the franchise, characters, and mechanics could really wreck the series. The Last of Us was great, but I prefer Uncharted. All that said, Uncharted 2 remains the best of the series, as Uncharted 3, probably due to soaring developments costs, was inferior to 2 in almost every way. So, who knows? No one does, or ever will.