Annapurna Interactive’s Blade Runner 2033 game reportedly still moving ahead, despite all full-time developers quitting: “The whole situation is a baffler”
All 25 employees at beloved boutique publisher Annapurna Interactive collectively resigned earlier this month – a move that was both shocking and sad considering how consistently the company delivered great games – but its parent company Annapurna Pictures has assured that its Blade Runner game will still go forward.
Annapurna Interactive worked with external developers to push out beloved game after beloved game, jumping from futuristic catventure Stray, time-looping mystery Outer Wilds, and family tragedy What Remains of Edith Finch, among many more. But the company also had plans to finally release its first game developed in-house: Blade Runner 2033: Labriynth, the first Blade Runner game in 25 years.
An Annapurna Pictures spokesperson recently told IGN that development on the mysterious game will continue, but IGN’s reporting also found that Blade Runner 2033’s director Chelsea Hash (who also worked on Edith Finch and Solar Ash), and every other full-time developer on the project, had resigned alongside the rest of the staff.
Details on why the mass resignations happened are still murky, but leadership at Annapurna Interactive reportedly wanted to spin-off from its corporate owners and become an independent company – and somewhere along the way, communications broke down. Annapurna Pictures tells IGN that the gaming division’s leadership hadn’t responded to legal drafts in months, but other anonymous sources allege that the company’s billionaire founder Megan Ellison was responsible for stalled negotiations. There’s a bunch of finer details that contributed to the uneasy tensions, so you should read the full report for all the nitty gritty specifics.
“The whole situation is a baffler,” an Annapurna spokesperson told the site, “but now we’re focused on moving forward… We’ve also had an influx of quality job applicants and are excited to build a team passionate about our mission to tell original stories that aren’t being told elsewhere. P.S. We’re hiring.”