After some major contributions to developer Naughty Dog's hit franchises, The Last of Us and Uncharted, designer Robert Ryan has joined up with The Initiative. Announced at E3 2018 last year, The Initative is Microsoft's newest first-party game development studio that has been continually gathering talent from all over the gaming industry.
Ryan's enlistment to The Initiative is momentous, considering his tenure at PlayStation's first-party development studio, Naughty Dog. For the past six years, Ryan has worked as a game designer for major titles like The Last of Us, The Last of Us 2, and several installments in the Uncharted gaming franchise. Following Brian Westergaard (lead producer on the PS4-exclusive God of War), Ryan is the second member of The Initiative to have previously worked on exclusive PS4 titles.
Since it was first announced last year, The Initiative has been slowly, but surely, bolstering its ranks with some of the most talented and experienced developers in the gaming industry today. Last year, two notable developers from Crystal Dynamics, as well as a team of distinguished gaming industry talent, all helped found the studio. With Ryan joining the fray, The Initiative now has some of the best production, development, design, and writing talent the gaming industry has to offer.
Given his experience and level of talent, Ryan will be joining The Initative as a Senior Systems Designer, most likely to further the development of The Initiative's to-be-announced first major project. Microsoft has been keeping the gaming community in suspense regarding what The Initiative has been working on so far, but whatever it is, it's bound to be something big, possibly groundbreaking. After all, The Initiative seems like it's putting together a dream-team, an all-star cast per se, of the best players in the business. With all of these gaming industry greats working on one project, The Initiative may finally be able to come up with exclusive titles to rival or even exceed that of PlayStation.
What do you think about Microsoft's latest efforts at getting The Initiative off the ground? Do you know of any other gaming-industry superstars that you think might be a good fit for Microsoft's newest first-party game studio? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
