Early this morning, a few blogs started reporting rumors that developer Naughty Dog’s former art director Nate Wells had returned to the studio. That is not the case.
GamesBeat has confirmed with Sony that Wells is not back at Naughty Dog. This is contrary to several news stories, which cited the artist’s profile on the job-networking site LinkedIn. Wells’s profile currently states that he is between jobs, but some sites claimed LinkedIn recently showed that the developer was once again working at the studio behind the critically acclaimed Uncharted and The Last of Us adventure-game series.
“He is not at Naughty Dog,”a PlayStation spokesperson told GamesBeat. “And we don’t have a comment about it [beyond that].”
In April, Wells left Naughty Dog. He joined the studio Giant Sparrow, which created the black-and-white adventure game The Unfinished Swan. While Wells’ LinkedIn profile indicates he is “between careers” right now, we have not verified if that is the case beyond this.
We’ve reached out to Giant Sparrow and Wells for comment, and we’ll update this story with any new information.
Wells is just one of a handful of notable Naughty Dog developers who have exited the studio in recent months. Uncharted creative developer Amy Hennig left the company in March. Later that same month, Uncharted 4 game director Justin Richmond left to work at League of Legends studio Riot Games. While these rapid-fire departures may not signify a wider problem, some fans have expressed concerns. The return of Wells would have quelled some of that.