“The whole situation is a baffler.”
Following the shocking mass-resignation of publisher Annapurna Interactive’s entire 25-person staff, a new report from IGN has provided more details about the gaming division’s dispute with its parent company, Annapurna Pictures, and its billionaire owner, Megan Ellison. Anonymous former employees shared concerns about the Interactive division’s future under Annapurna Pictures, and claimed that Ellison refused to continue working with them on an agreement to spin off the division. Spokespeople for the parent company claimed that the division’s leader failed to respond to their efforts to move the process forward.
Annapurna Interactive was founded as a gaming-focused subsidiary of Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures in 2016, tapping veteran gaming talent including former Sony employees Nathan Gary and Hector Sanchez. After a run of producing successful films like The Master, Her, and Zero Dark Thirty, Annapurna Pictures began to struggle financially in the late 2010s. The Interactive division, meanwhile, enjoyed continued success with games like Stray, Outer Wilds, and Neon White. Gary was named president of Annapurna Pictures overall in 2021, but a source that spoke to IGN alleged his focus remained on the gaming side of the company.
After having remained hands-off with Annapurna for several years following its late-2010s struggles, IGN reports that Ellison initiated a leadership shakeup in March, with conflicting accounts as to what precisely happened in the Interactive division: Anonymous former members claim that Nathan Gary was fired, while an Annapurna spokesperson says he resigned in response to other staff changes, as well as his effective demotion from being the head of Annapurna overall to once again just leading Annapurna Interactive.
