Annapurna Interactive staff quits following failed negotiations to spin-off

Annapurna Interactive have published some excellent titles in recent years but the company appears to be in a bit of a rough patch, as an entire team of 25 employees quit due to soured negotiations with bosses.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier broke the story, confirming that ‘around two dozen' employees at Annapurna Interactive, including its president, Nathan Gray, resigned due to failed negotiations with Annapurna owner, Megan Ellison. Annapurna Interactive, which is the company's game publishing arm, wanted to spin-off and become an independent entity and when that wasn't allowed to happen, almost the entire staff quit.

Schreier's report claims that this has caused “chaos” amongst Annapurna's development partners, although all contracts currently in place will be honoured, according to Annapurna Interactive's newly appointed president, Hector Sanchez. Those who left the company are expected to be replaced.

“Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition,” Ellison said in a statement provided to Bloomberg. “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 theatre.”

None of this is said to have any impact on Remedy's recent partnership with Annapurna, which is with a separate part of the company for things like film, TV and audio dramas, comics etc.

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KitGuru Says: This is a very unexpected turn of events and with so many employees being replaced, there will no doubt be some changes to how the publishing arm operates moving forward. 

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