Annapurna Interactive Video Game Staff Resigns (Report)

The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive, the video game division at Megan Ellison‘s Annapurna, has resigned, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing multiple sources. A rep for the company did not comment on the story.

On Sept. 6, Annapurna said that its president, Nathan Gary, who also oversaw the company’s video game operations, would be exiting along with the co-heads of Annapurna’s indie gaming division, Deborah Mars and Nathan Vell. This week, Bloomberg reports that Gary and the staffers in the company’s gaming division, over two dozen in total, resigned after negotiations to spin off the video game division from the larger company fell through.

Hector Sanchez, who helped found Annapurna Interactive, joined the company from Epic Games as the president of interactive and new media, and will now oversee the company’s gaming efforts. Today’s report noted that the resignations caused concern among Annaurna’s game making partners.

Since launching its gaming operation in 2016, Annapurna has ascended in the indie gaming space, producing award-winning indie games like What Remains of Edith Finch and Stray, the latter of which sold multimillion units in its first month of release and won the gaming world equivalent of an Oscar in 2022. Annapurna faced well-reported financial difficulties in 2019 and 2020 and scaled back its film production efforts, but it continued producing award-winning indie games. Other lauded titles include Cocoon and Outer Wilds.

But Annapurna will soon be back in theaters with Marielle Heller’s anticipated horror comedy Nightbitch, starring Amy Adams, which recently debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The company released Netflix’s animated feature Nimona and the animated TV series Sausage Party: Foodtopia with Amazon.