Naughty Dog Veteran Rejoins The Studio After Four Years at The Initiative and Deviation Games

Animator Lee Davis has rejoined Naughty Dog after fulfilling positions at Microsoft's The Initiative and PlayStation-backed studio Deviation Games.

The Naughty Dog veteran announced his return to the studio yesterday on LinkedIn. "I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Senior Animator at Naughty Dog", he wrote. Joining Naughty Dog in 2010 to work on The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, and Uncharted 4 as well as spin-off The Lost Legacy, David left the studio in 2020 to join Perfect Dark studio The Initiative. Following a 1.5-year stint at the Xbox-owned studio, Davis joined PlayStation-backed studio Deviation Games in March 2022. As most of you will know - this studio was recently shut down, and was working on a new live-service IP for PlayStation.

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"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games", the studio's former HR Chief and Operations Officer Kriste Stull wrote back in March of this year. "I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of you."

As said David has now rejoined his old studio, but this time as a Senior Animator. No additional details about which project the veteran will be working on have been shared, but it might very well be the studio's new project that Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann talked about recently.

Druckmann said, "So, I'm not only excited for this game that we're making -- and it's, it's something really fresh for us -- but I'm also excited to see how the world reacts to it. Because of The Last of Us, and the success of the show, people even outside of gaming are looking at us to see what it is that we put out next. I'm very excited to see what the reaction for this thing will be — and I've already said too much