- God of War Ragnarok’s former art director Raf Grassetti has joined Naughty Dog
- Grassetti spent 10 years at Sony Santa Monica before leaving to join Netflix Games’ Team Blue, which closed in October
- Grassetti will likely be working on Naughty Dog’s next, as yet unannounced game
Ex-Sony Santa Monica developer Raf Grassetti has joined Naughty Dog to presumably work on the studio’s new game.
The announcement comes from Grassetti himself X/Twitterwhere he simply wrote “New Chapter” accompanied by an image of the Naughty Dog logo.
Grassetti previously worked as lead art director for Sony Santa Monica God of war and then the art director God of War Ragnarok.
The developer left the studio in 2023 after ten years to lead the art department for a AAA game at the Netflix Games studio codenamed Team Blue, alongside industry members like Halo Infinity‘s creative director Joe Staten and Chacko Sonny, who previously served as executive producer on the film Overwatch.
In October, Team Blue was shut down after a wave of layoffs that ultimately killed the mysterious AAA project.
It is currently unclear which game Grassetti will work on for Naughty Dog, or what role he will play.
Naughty Dog Co-Chairman and The last of us director Neil Druckmann confirmed earlier this year that “multiple single-player” projects are in development at the studio.
Development remains hush-hush, but new insider information about the secret project was reported in October by MinnMax founder Ben Hanson, who claimed that a source “very informed, who has worked on the game” told him that the game was “a lot” will contain. freedom of players”.
The studio was also expected to release a new one The last of us online game, a multiplayer spin-off that was in development for four years but was canceled in December 2023 due to concerns that it would impact the studio’s future single-player games.