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Ex-Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig joins EA to work on Star Wars

Former Naughty Dog and Crystal Dynamics veteran takes up position of creative director at EA's Visceral Games studio.

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Former Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig has joined Electronic Arts to work on a new installment in the Star Wars series with developer Visceral Games. Studio general manager Steve Papoutsis announced the news today on EA's blog. Hennig will be the game's creative director.

Amy Hennig
Amy Hennig

"Over the last few weeks, Amy and I have spent a lot of time talking about what her first project would be. There are a lot of different directions we could have gone, but I could sense that what really excited her about this opportunity (because let's face it, we weren't the only ones knocking at her door) was Star Wars," Papoutsis said. "Amy's a huge fan. We happen to be making a Star Wars game. Just thinking about the possibilities made both of us even more excited about having her join the team."

Visceral Games' Star Wars title is rumored to be an open-world game, though EA has yet to provide any details on what form the studio's first title in the sci-fi series will take. EA and Star Wars franchise owner Disney signed a ten-year, multi-title deal last year that makes the Mass Effect publisher the exclusive creator of new Star Wars games. Battlefield developer DICE is currently working on a new Star Wars: Battlefront game.

Hennig got started in games at EA in 1991, when she worked at the company as a game designer/artist. She left EA for Crystal Dynamics in 1995, and worked there for eight years on the Legacy of Kain franchise, among others. Henning left Crystal Dynamics in 2003 and took up the position of creative director at Naughty Dog, where she helped create the Uncharted series as its creative director. She was going to serve as a writer for the new Uncharted game for PlayStation 4, but she left the studio early last month.

It was initially reported that Hennig was "forced out" of Naughty Dog, but the studio would later refute this claim.

Following the announcement today, Hennig explained her move to EA through a series of tweets.

"It might've taken me 23 years, but I'm back--and it's good to be home at EA," she said. "It's a privilege to have the opportunity to contribute to the Star Wars universe, after it's had such a formative influence on my life."

"Two amazing things entered my life in 1977--Star Wars and the Atari 2600," she explained. "This opportunity is the confluence of the two most influential experiences of my youth, and I couldn't be more excited to go on this journey."

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gzg9jg

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NOW they can do the SW:1313 game at last!

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deactivated-5acfa3a8bc51d

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cool

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youre_a_sheep

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There goes any and all goodwill that was ever attached to her name, having joined gaming's Evil Empire.

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PlaystationZone

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well i wont work for EA Games and i can see why EA Games doing star wars because the head of EA Games is darth vader him self.

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Meteora1991

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And the long wait for the continuation of Legacy of Kain goes on :(

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QTMew

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I sense evil coming forth.

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GSyynoandnoyyGS

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Now this is interesting

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TheWatcher000

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Hopefully she can make a difference. I will reserve any judgement until finished product, because EA has been so out of control lately that I simply do not believe in anything they are doing.


Honestly, I wish Amy would have landed at another company. I fear her talents may be wasted at EA.


We shall see.

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thefinalzapkeet

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I still feel like EA is a fairly good company. At the very least they were publishers for mass effect 2 and mass effect 3 which were both amazing (except for the ME3 ending, but they fixed that and i think that was mostly bioware's fault, as much as it hurts me as a biodrone to say it)


only disappointing game i've played recently from EA was dragon age 2, which i still feel like was a decent game, just a bad dragon age game, but inquisition looks incredible


but yeah, there is some potential for disaster here, but i don't think everything EA touches go bad. that could be the optimism in me talking

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PlatinumPaladin

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I'm glad she got herself a good position, something she'll hopefully enjoy. Shame it's with one of the least creative publishers out there. With any luck, Hennig might be able go a small way to change that.

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berserker66666

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She has joined......THE DARK SIDE

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deactivated-63e36b38d9211

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<< LINK REMOVED >> It may be because it is early in the morning for me, but this made my chuckle. :)

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Ma-ti89

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From the pic with the Tie Fighters, I want a new Tie Fighter game now!

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lewser5

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a new star wars game that could turn out to be good? sign me up.

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Vodoo

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Sony made a huge mistake letting her leave. Even though she made a deal with the devil (EA), she's at a great studio. Visceral is a very competent developer and she should fit right in there.

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bourne714

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Awesome. I have a feeling that the game she contributes to will be better that the new movie.

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lateralus1

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This is great news. Visceral Games is the studio that made the Dead Space games and Dante's Inferno. Amy is a true veteran in this industry. She worked on the Legacy Kain series which was awesome. Of course she also worked on the Uncharted series. This is good news. A team up of amazing talent. I expect a great Star Wars game from this.

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yumyumnomnom

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new open world Star Wars game??? sign me up!

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alonfire

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The only game i want from the Star Wars Franchise is Battlefront 3, i just hope Dice can correct all the bugs before EA pushes it

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digitm64

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<< LINK REMOVED >> At least DICE have learnt from the mistakes and it should have much better netcode, if it has exactly the same netcode then that would be proof of laziness.

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Aaronp2k

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This is very intriguing. We could be looking at a new star wars hit, possibly bigger than jedi knight.

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Hurvl

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She doesn't need to venture into any Uncharted territories for the Star Wars games she's working on, I'll settle for something tried-and-true as long as it's good.

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JoInfo

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I still play SWTOR!

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rasterror

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Me too. Top 5 greatest games of all time.

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OldDadGamer

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OldDadGamer  Moderator

The irony that there is such excitement on this article and such "I'll never buy an EA game" on the other one is delicious.


Man, the internet.

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Hurvl

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<< LINK REMOVED >> EA is quite (Darth) inSidious, having control of lots of good studios and talented people, while at the same time being quite hated by the internet. That makes for an interesting ambivalence: great devs/games, bad publisher. You want to play the games, but not support the publisher who will profit from the sales. I generally don't give a crap about anything except how good the game is, but if EA makes their Star Wars games require Origin I'll probably work off my backlog first and buy them a few years after they're released. On a sale of course.

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HStakes7

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Amy's work on the Legacy of Kain series is enough to make her one of the all time great writers, I'm interested to see if she can bring some new dimensions to the traditionally 2 dimensional star wars universe.

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taker254isback

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If they make this SW game with a "Mass Effect" style... we're in for a treat.

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BigBossWato

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Mass effect style game in the KOTOR Star Wars universe, would make this deal even better.

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jdt532

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I was hugely disappointed that Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog in the middle of development on Uncharted 4 but as a huge Star Wars fan I'm excited about the possibility of an awesome Star Wars game. Can't get too excited though cause it's EA... I hope they don't rush this game like they did with ME3 and Dragon Age 2...

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thefinalzapkeet

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I can see dragon age 2, but what was wrong with ME3 besides a 10 minute ending? not only that, but EA delayed the game for a year so they would have time to work on it. The rest of the game is considered amazing by the critics, I don't think a 10 minute ending cutscene (which was probably bioware's decision, not EA's) justifies it as being rushed

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Zemus

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Her part was already finished on Uncharted 4 though. She finished writing the script and the main details were already hammered out. It's still very much her game, It's Uncharted 5 if they make one that will be drastically different

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digitm64

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She has turned to the dark side.

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Hurvl

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<< LINK REMOVED >>She returns to EA after 23 years, the company she started at, so she could use Darth Vader's lines when he's battling Obi-Wan: "When I left you, I was but the learner; now *I* am the master" and EA would then respond: "Bitch please, you're not even 1/10 as evil as I am."

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RC-Sev

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More power to SW games!


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Khuzko

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<< LINK REMOVED >> what is with steamy at the end of each comment of urs

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GSyynoandnoyyGS

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Somebody is giving away free steamed potatoes

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Faye_Tallity

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As much as I am disappointed they mistreated such talent, to the point that she left (this also gives ND a bad name to work for) the Star Wars Universe needs it. No one wants to see a re-hashed hot mess of a game. She was originally part of EA, so she's comfortable with them. Good for her. I just don't trust EA. They lay people off as easily, as they pay them. You have our money, now more than ever, EA!


GOOD LUCK AMY!


A.H. FTW!

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tom2750

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<< LINK REMOVED >> how do you even know she was mistreated? for all you know she could be lying and she left because shes a brat that didn't get her own way or she did something to piss naughty dog off or something else but surprise surprise a female sticking up for another female without even knowing the full story without even knowing if the female was the one that was in the wrong its just nup its never the woman's fault us women have it so hard we always get mistreated we will take a woman's side and act like she has been mistreated even without knowing what really happened but we are definitely not bias or sexist by always taking our own genders side

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BigBossWato

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<< LINK REMOVED >> You really can't blame ND since we don't know the whole story because for all we know she could have done something to piss them off.

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ghost59

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you had my interesting. now got my wallet out and ready to give you money.

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Zoberk

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Now we get a damn good Star Wars story.

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pip3dream

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i have a feeling we're about to get a rad new star wars game.

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Khuzko

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amy hennig was trained at naughty dog - another good done by sony for the gaming community - thank you sony

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rasterror

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No, she worked at Naughty Dog, she was trained at school. If Sony did a great job she would still be working there. Clueless Sony fanboy.

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tom2750

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<< LINK REMOVED >> PlayStation is superior to Xbox in nearly every way including exclusive games get over it

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rasterror

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And your reasons for that are?

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MilleniaXEnder

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<< LINK REMOVED >> shut up! Sony fanboy!

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Zoberk

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Amy Hennig was doing amazing stuff even before Naughty Dog. Legacy Of Kain should not be ignored.

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