- God of War Ragnarok’s former art director Raf Grassetti has joined Naughty Dog
- Grassetti was at Sony Santa Monica for 10 years before leaving to work at Netflix Games’ Team Blue, which shut down 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 over on X / Twitter, where he simply wrote “New chapter” accompanied by an image of the Naughty Dog logo.
Grassetti has previously worked as the principal art director on Sony Santa Monica’s God of War and then the art director on God of War Ragnarok.
The developer left the studio in 2023 after 10 years to lead the art department on a AAA game at Netflix Games studio codenamed Team Blue, alongside industry members like Halo Infinite‘s creative director Joe Staten and Chacko Sonny, who previously worked as an executive producer on Overwatch.
In October, Team Blue was shut down following a wave of layoffs, ultimately killing the mystery AAA project.
It’s unclear at this time what game Grassetti will be working on for Naughty Dog, or in what role he will be serving.
Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann confirmed earlier this year that there are “multiple single-player” projects in development at the studio.
Development remains quiet, however, new insider information about the secret project was reported by MinnMax founder Ben Hanson in October who claimed that a source “very in the know, who worked on the game” told him that the game will feature “a lot of player freedom”.
The studio was also expected to release a new The Last of Us Online game, a multiplayer spin-off that was in development for four years, but it was canceled in December 2023 following concerns that it would impact the studio’s future single-player games.