Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells retiring after 25 years

Naughty Dog co-chairman Evan Wells will retire from the studio at the end of the year, it has been announced.

Wells has been discussing retirement with the Naughty Dog studio leadership team for “over a year, and with Neil [Druckmann] even longer than that.”

While the decision has caused some “overwhelming and mixed emotions,” Wells said he feels nothing but satisfaction when it comes to spending the last 25 years in the studio.

“I could not be more confident in Neil’s ability to continue to lead the studio.” Wells said in a statement“The time is right for me to provide the opportunity for him and others on the studio leadership team to steer the studio toward a successful future.”

Wells has been developing games professionally for over 30 years and has nothing but gratitude for what he learned at Naughty Dog, despite such a bittersweet game.

“I couldn’t be more excited about our current projects, and not being able to see those full games is going to be difficult,” Wells said. “But we have never had a stronger team to ensure that we will deliver them in a way that will set industry standards and exceed all expectations.

“I have no doubt that Naughty Dog will reach new heights and continue to raise the bar for the state of the art.”

Wells’ first gig in video games was at SEGA, working on ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron before heading to Crystal Dynamics in 1995. Here, Wells worked on Gex and Gex: Enter the Gecko before moving to Naughty Dog in 1998. to work on various Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter titles. Wells became co-chairman of the studio along with Stephen White in 2005, who was succeeded the following year by Christophe Balestra, who in turn retired in 2017, making Wells sole chairman.

During Wells’ tenure as co-chairman, the studio released the Uncharted series and The Last of Us. As president, Wells oversaw the release of The Last of Us Part 2 until Neil Druckmann’s promotion to co-chairman in 2020.

Wells also executive produced the film Uncharted and the HBO series The Last of Us.