Annapurna Interactive is the gaming division of Annapurna Pictures a media production company by Megan Ellison, Annapurna Interactive was formed around 2016 and their first title release was called ‘What Remains Of Edith Finch’ and since then they have made and released some iconic titles like ‘Outer Wilds’, ‘Neon White’ and ‘Journey’.
On September 13th a Bloomberg article was published stating that the entire gaming division of Annapurna Pictures had staged a mass walkout, seemingly out of nowhere but details have since come out to suggest a much deeper corporate drama that was afoot.
Some Context To Set The Stage
To understand the situation some context is required on the leadership of the company Annapurna Pictures. The company’s founder and leader is billionaire film producer Megan Ellison, it was founded in 2011. The gaming division was founded by recruiting veterans of the gaming industry such as an ex-Sony creative director Nathan Gary and two ex-Sony producers, Deborah Mars and Hector Sanchez, Sanchez had left the company around early 2019.
Unlike its gaming division, its film division was struggling and going on red around 2019, since it continually produced films that racked up losses rising above five hundred thousand dollars and then millions. Megan’s father Lary Ellison, the founder of Oracle (Yes that Billion Dollar Company) was now hiring a number of advisors to essentially find a way to make it go on the green again.
Around the same time, Megan Ellison had then disappeared from the public on a self-imposed “hiatus” , thus leaving her struggling business at the start of the pandemic, making the business scramble to find a leader and guide itself on shifting to a work from home system.She came out of this “hiatus” and then seemingly out of nowhere named Nathan Gary as the new head of the entire company.
The Events Of Leading To The Mass Walkout
Under the leadership of Nathan Gary is when Annapurna’s gaming division sort of took off, releasing much beloved and almost critically acclaimed titles like “Outer Wilds” and “Cocoon”. At some point whispers are given stating that Nathan would purposefully divert money from the film division to the gaming division.
Later Nathan appointed James Massi as an “Chief Administrative Officer” which was unusual to have for a company of Annapurna’s size.
At the start of 2024, the people under the gaming division suddenly learned that James Masi had been let go and they soon received more news as Nathan Gary who was appointed as the head of the gaming division from the beginning had also left.
This was the news that made some key employees of the gaming division of Annapurna to resign as they just learned that both of their beloved leaders had just been fired without warning.
There Were Negotiations For A Split
Days after the walkout, Megan Ellison had signaled wanting to communicate to find a resolution and expressed a desire to retain all the employees who had walked out. It steered toward Nathan Gary wanting to split off from Annapurna to form “Vercet”.
Vercet would take over all current projects from the gaming division and the profit would be split between Annapurna and Vercet but they are also allowed to take on their own projects.
Later on employees of the gaming division that Hector Sanchez, the one who left the company around early 2019 had been rehired back and was quietly working on gaming projects without their knowledge. At some point in an official announcement Hector was named as president to Annapurna Interactive, seemingly at odds with Nathan’s position.
Around August is when it was confirmed that Ellison for whatever reason started taking more control of the gaming division’s resources and deals, thus the entirety of the division handed in their 2 week notice and promptly on September 6th all 25 employees of the gaming division left the company.
Now it may be that the departed employees form a new studio called Vercet and continue to work there with Nathan and Co. as the leader, Annapurna now has the job of ensuring some forty projects are delivered with proper quality as they struggle to find replacements for industry veterans that left.
