PS4 ICE Team Programmer Cort Stratton Leaves Naughty Dog

Graphics programmer leaving team after 11 years.

[DragonDDark]

I wish him good Luck :]

[LordMaim]

You don't have to. Ten years at Naughty Dog is enough to ensure that he's going to be headhunted by many other developers who'll throw money at him, hoping to bring some of that magic to their studio.

[DragonDDark]

You're probably right :P

[donthate]

Yup....

but it seems there is a steady outflow of talented and veteran staff at Naughty Dog. I wonder why?

Veterans tend to stick around for a long long time, because they were part of shaping the culture when they were there in the early days.

[Goldby]

@Donthate

it could be anything of Contracts being up, to geographical issues, financial issues. some may be looking to open their own dev studio. and countless others. personally if we had more people from ND in other studios it'll just increase the overall quality we get.

as always, i wish him the best and hope to see good things from his new venture in life.

[Pogmathoin]

Goldby, I would guess its people just wanting a new challenge.... Look at some of the biggest studios, been lots of moving around....

[UltraNova]

Some people naturally need to move on at some point, I know I do, so wherever he goes they are lucky to have him but since new blood will be coming in to replace him at ND we might see an evolutionary change within ND due to new, fresh ideas, who knows.

Good luck to the guy.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Sad to see veterans go, but it is to be expected that one day they will leave eventually. I know ND will fill his position with another skilled programmer to keep the ICE team as strong as ever.

Good luck on your future endeavors Cort and Thank You!

[gameseveryday]

Yep, that opens the door for an equally capable person but 11 years is a lot. And in that time he has bought amazing things to the PS4 Graphics API.

[Silly Mammo]

OMG!! What's going on at Naughty Dog?!?!?

/s

[Wallstreet37]

We really going to ask this again? Whats going on at Naughty Dog is what happens in almost every single dev team in existence. Do you know how many teams shut down, change, or ppl move on to different projects? Its common for teams to change in this industry and for ppl to move on to different projects.

Those ppl that move on have left their mark and open up a position for someone who is also talented but maybe with different tool sets that can breathe new life into a project whilst still maintaining the integrity of the team and using established tools and ideas. There will still be major players from the old team helping along and teaching them what they learned.

[yomfweeee]

You must have missed his /s ....

[_-EDMIX-_]

lolz, I don't disagree with you, I agree fully with what you are saying.

But....he did state the /s so he is merely joking.

You are correct though, many staff leave publishers often, many times its merely not reported. It would be as strange as a studio like Universal telling us every time someone is fired or laid off etc.

Its not being reported because it doesn't happen, its merely just not being reported.

[Wallstreet37]

yomfweeee....

Hell yeah lol I guess im conditioned to hear this same statement from before that i automatically reacted and didnt see the sarcasm.

[DEAD-DEVIL-DISCO]

Dont let him sweat ya._..I didnt see it either :)

[LP-Eleven]

Glad you added the "/s". Some would run with that, otherwise (like the individual below me claiming it's "really a goodbye for Uncharted"). Never mind that the guy left the TEAM, not just a mere project. :P

[Wallstreet37]

Yeah like i did because ive heard that nonsense so much and ppl were dead serious.

[Wallstreet37]

silly Mammo...

Did you add that /s afterwards? lol i didnt see it. Ok now the comment makes sense because ppl say stuff like that all the time.

[wenaldy]

Did you add that /s?

[Toiletsteak]

They are doomed! Doomed! DOOMED I TELL YA!

/s

[WeAreLegion]

Good Lord. Do we really have to add /s for everyone around here to get sarcasm? Come on.

[Exoil]

Haven't you been here long enough to know that /s is the only thing that seperates the jokers from the fanboys/trolls?

[WeAreLegion]

Lol. Yes. But it's just weird. Ya know?

[Skate-AK]

Sadly you have to do it unless you want to be bubbled down into oblivion.

[Knushwood Butt]

Unfortunately yes.

[Bathyj]

If sarcasm occurs on the internet and theres no /S, does it exist?

Sadly no, you have no vocal tone when typing so is not always clear if your sarcastic or not. Typing /s is just easier if you dont want to be misunderstood.

Oh we should have a sarcasm emoji, that'd be REALLY useful. ;P

[Pancit_Canton]

I guess it's really a good bye for Uncharted series. I almost forgot that series is almost 10 years old.

[DragonDDark]

9 years..

[Kalebninja]

he said almost.

[mike32UK]

Which is almost 10...

[DragonDDark]

He edited it :[

[DarXyde]

The series has been running for some time. Yes, yes, I'm sure you'd like to know how long.

I'm afraid it's been...nine years.

[KingKevo]

The ICE team has nothing to do with the Uncharted series directly though. The ICE team, that works on creating core graphics technologies for all Sony studios (and other third party studios) working on Sony platforms, is a completely seperate team from the other teams at ND that develop games. They share the same studio, but an ICE member has a different job than a programmer working on Uncharted.

[Imalwaysright]

Time sure goes fast. It seems like it was yesterday that I put my Uncharted disk on my phat PS3 for the 1st time.

[iNathan]

Good Luck sir and thanks for the amazing work from the past decade!

Naughty Dog <3

[DragonDDark]

What about the 1 year? :Þ

[Paytaa]

Playstation doomed? Find out on N4G in 2 hours.

[fenome]

Lmao! We should see what Pachter has to say about this.

[travestyj]

Can we guess who is going to make the stupid article? My money is on thisgengaming

[Goldby]

and the first comment will be...

"Lets take a moment and think about this"

[Tsunade]

Best wishes for him and hope he finds a new job soon. With Naughty Dog on his resume, he will find a job very soon.

Not everyone got the chance to work with one of the most respected and legendary studio in the industry.

[Death]

I would imagine he had a plan in place before leaving ND. His contract most likely prohibits him from saying what he is doing or where he is going for a fixed amount of time.

[corroios]

«PS4 ICE Team Programmer Leaves Naughty Dog. Is this the end for the PS4?

is another good title

[Tsunade]

Expect the following articles soon on N4G...

Is Naughty Dog doomed?
The end of an Era for Naughty Dog.
Should Microsoft buy Naughty Dog?

[OB1Biker]

Dont forget dev says articles

[LuckyChamCham]

Lmao! This.

[Paytaa]

With Naughty Dog and Playstation now doomed, will Xbox One finally output 1080p?

[Tsunade]

Lol

[MagicBeanz]

Nah, but maybe when DX13 comes out.

[HawaiianDreads]

Is it bad while I read this I hear the ending song of DBZ before it goes to a cliff hanger?

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Igihara]

Wasn't the ICE team made so it could optimize games to run on the Cell processor? Also, one guy leaving doesn't mean it's shutting down

[oakshin]

Dont quote me on this but yes i believe ur right

[opinionated]

Naughty dog in name only. It's like still calling infinity ward infinity ward. It's true but not really.

[WeAreLegion]

Well, Naughty Dog got better. Infinity Ward got (I'm so sorry for this...) infinitely worse.

[opinionated]

How do you know? Everybody left in the middle of uncharted 4. This isn't the first guy there is a load of them that left. We'll know for sure on their next game if they are on the same caliber. I think the uncharted 4 delays prove how hurt they are with the departures.

[WeAreLegion]

Because this is the same amount of people who left after Uncharted 1. And Uncharted 2. And Uncharted 3. And probably their older games, too. They're Naughty Dog. They get their pick of the litter.

(Don't be mad cuz I'm droppin' mad word play.)

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

"Everybody"

Ahahaha

3 people = everybody

[Liqu1d]

Infinity Ward aren't even in the same league as Naughty Dog.

[iNathan]

Not sure if serious LOOL

[opinionated]

Dead serious. Yeah high level people left. They weren't interns lol. What's up with y'all and the muhahahaha crap? Lol. You are either evil professors or desperate to prove your point.

[trooper_]

@Stonewall

People leave industries and jobs all the time for retirement or for other companies. How does this spell doom for Naughty Dog?

[TwoForce]

There are different between two of them. Naughty Dogs employees left to move a better future and they wish ND to success. Infinity Ward have lost a lot of people because Activision treat employees like s***.

[trooper_]

...Are you seriously kidding me right now?

[XboxInnovation]

I've always thought they named the game "The Last of Us" as a nod to it being the last Naughty Dog game with most of the original devs.

[Picnic]

People who disagreed might not realise that such 'in jokes' do sometimes accompany games. What could Just Cause mean apart from 'moral aim' - put stuff that had rarely or never been combined together in a game 'just cause' you want players to have freedom. There are numerous simultaneous meanings to the phrase 'The Last of Us' - the end of a father daughter relationship , the end of a society or a species. Or the end of a country's more carefree days as in The Last of US(A).

[SynestheticRoar]

Oh no it's the end people are leaving. Their doom. Where all doom. The playstation is doom. Oh the humanity.

[bloodybutcher]

is Doom doomed though?

[SynestheticRoar]

Yes it is. Thank you.

[FoxyGotGame]

This is the end of Sony Interactive Entertainment and the PS brand ...WTF am I gonna do now? /s

All the best on future endeavours Mr Stratton!

[Sweetbrandigirl]

I'm one of those people that always needs the who, what, WHY and where so I'd like to known WHY he's leaving. I'm sad to see him go because his amazing abilities will definitely be needing on TLOU II.

[Picnic]

Many of you talk like you personally witnessed that in practice he didn't just get the coffees.

[II__BONE__II]

Nothing unusual is going on at NaughtyDog that doesn't happen to all business,...People come people go,it's life.
Where I work with an office staff of about 50 and about 100 floor workers I have seen about 20 office workers leave in the last few years for various reasons,Health,Family issues,higher paying jobs,retirement,location issues and many other reasons it is all normal and part of business operations.
It does not mean people are fighting each other in the halls at NaughtyDog it's all normal.

[Soldierone]

All these people leaving ND and Bungie should start a new studio. They could cherry pick a few lionhead employees and whoever leaves Bioware lol

[MagicBeanz]

That sucks, the ICE team is phenomenal shame that he's leaving but I'm sure they have loads of talent still. Best of luck to him.

[redfirm]

for all the people thinking everybody is leaving ND. most people grow up and start their own families and their priorities change. this happens in every studio.