Annapurna Interactive’s Entire Staff Resigned En Masse After Dispute With Megan Ellison

In one of the more bizarre studio meltdowns of 2024, video game studio Annapurna Interactive found itself without any employees last week after its entire workforce of 25 people resigned from their jobs en masse.

The company, part of film and tv production company Annapurna, is operated by Megan Ellison, brother to David Ellison, whose Skydance Media is in the process of acquiring Paramount, and daughter of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who recently surpassed Mark Zuckerberg to become the third-richest person on the planet with a net worth of over $203 billion.

The resignations occurred over a “dispute” with Ellison, according to Bloomberg, which was first to report that the entire studio had quit. The dispute, per Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, revolved around negotiations to spin off the video game division into a separate company. When the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement, Ellison pulled out of the talks, which led to the studio’s employees all leaving.

“All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,” former Annapurna Interactive president Nathan Gary and the rest of the workers said in a joint statement. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.”

Ellison responded to Bloomberg with the following statement:

Our top priority is continuing to support our developer and publishing partners during this transition. We’re committed to not only our existing slate of games but also expanding our presence in the interactive space as we continue to look for opportunities to take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater.

The company has appointed Hector Sanchez, one of the division’s original staffers, as the new president.

Annapurna, working with other game developers, has published around three to five indie titles annually since 2017, including such well-received titles as Kentucky Route Zero, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, Cocoon and Stray, the latter of which is currently being developed as an animated feature through Annapurna Animation.

Annapurna is active in the animation space in other ways too. Last year, it produced the Oscar-nominated Netflix Animation feature Nimona and this year launched Sausage Party: Foodtopia on Prime Video.