Two Naughty Dog Lead Developers Leave to Join Infinity Ward - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 August 2014 / 6,507 Views
Two Naughty Dog lead developers have left the studio to join Infinity Ward. Naughty Dog's former narrative design lead Taylor Kurosaki is now Infinity Ward's narrative director and former Naughty Dog lead game designer Jacob Minkoff is now the design director at Infinity Ward.
"Very psyched to share that I've joined the phenomenal team at @InfinityWard as the studio's narrative director," Kurosaki tweeted. "To infinity and beyond!"
"New job! Design Director at Infinity Ward." Tweeted Minkoff. "Love ND; can't wait to play Uncharted 4 as a fan. Excited to work with the talented team at IW!"
Kurosaki had been the cinematic production lead for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and editor on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Minkoff had been lead designer on The Last of Us and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com.
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LETS hope infinite ward don't waste their talents and give us another turd like ghost
ND has been losing people left and right... Wonder why Sony hasn't taken steps to renew some of these contracts and keep some of these people? I mean this is the Most Popular Game Studio They Have.. After The Last Of Us they may actually be one of if not the most popular gaming studio around right now.
Nice, moving up from lead to director. Hope it goes well for them. Naughty Dog has been very strong in narrative in it's 7th gen games, so these guys have been in a very good training ground. I imagine it's a big step up from being a lead to being a director.
Two leads leave for the same company in around the same time? ND's getting poached, hard.
Jobs are advertised. People apply. People talk, people interview, people offer jobs, people accept. oh....and people also refer.
These jobs (Narrative Director and Design Director) were never listed as open. You can check any archived version of their webpage: http://web.archive.org/web/20140702103949/http://www.infinityward.com/careers
As for the rest of what you said, you mean like an email that goes:
"Hello Mr. Kurasaki! You've done an amazing job on your previous titles. We'd like to expand and explore, and would love to have your expertise. Would you be willing to talk?" which ultimately results in an offer for a higher salary?
The exact definition of poaching in the business sense: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/poach ?
Something that happens day in and day out in every industry between large successful businesses?
Or do you subscribe to the thought that two successful leads in a very successful and prestigious studio decided to randomly email a completely different company one day, randomly curious if their positions were open?
There's nothing wrong with poaching. Happens every day, and any successful business will ultimately deal with it. it's a compliment to Naughty Dog and staff. But it's interesting to see it anyway.
(btw, I couldn't see an option to Reply directly to you. My apologies!)
People downvoting you must not get what you're saying and assuming it's negative.
Folks, talented development teams WILL get poached. That's the point. If they weren't talented and in big demand, then nobody would poach them. This is a loss for ND, but it's even more so a testament to how the industry views their talent.
