Annapurna Interactive team quits after spin-off talks fail

The majority of the Annapurna Interactive team have walked out after talks with its parent company had collapsed.

The publisher formed in 2016 as a division of Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures, and has had a few hit releases, including Stray, What Remains of Edith Finch and the Outer Wilds. However, with Annapurna Pictures shifting its strategy around games, the Interactive team was looking to spin the publisher out as an independent business. According to Bloomberg, the negotiations were being led by Interactive head Nathan Gary.

However, both parties had failed to reach an agreement, causing the heads of Annapurna Interactive and 'two dozen other staff' to walk out, Bloomberg reports.

Annapurna Interactive was planning to publish over a dozen indie games over the next two years, including a title in the Silent Hill franchise. The firm told Bloomberg that it will continue to support these titles and continue to expand in video games, although it will now need to replace its lost employees or outsource some of the functions, which includes marketing, localisation, QA, PR and platform relations.

Annapurna has been looking to more closely integrate games with its TV and film side. It rehired Hector Sanchez from Epic Games, who was one of the founders of Annapurna Interactive, as president of interactive and new media. The firm has also just signed a deal with Finnish game developer Remedy over the TV and movie rights to the Control and Alan Wake series, which included co-financing the upcoming Control video games.