To work on “the next big thing”.
Image credit: Naughty Dog
Raf Grassetti – principal artist on 2018’s God of War and, later, art director on its acclaimed sequel God of War Ragnarök – has announced he’s starting a “new chapter” at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog, following the closure of Netflix‘s “AAA” studio in October.
Grassetti joined Sony Santa Monica in 2013, rising through the ranks to become studio art director in 2022. However, he announced his departure last May, revealing he’d joined Netflix Games to work on a new AAA title alongside Halo Infinite creative head Joseph Staten, former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny, and ex-Coalition technical director Jerry Edsall.
Unfortunately, that project proved to be short-lived. Netflix announced it was pulling the plug on its development – and disbanding the studio – this October, without ever revealing what the team had been working on over the preceding 18 months.
Since then, it’s been speculated Staten has rejoined Halo Studios, given the company closed its job listing for a creative director around the time of his Netflix departure. And Grassetti has now revealed his own return to old haunts as part of a “new chapter”, albeit in this instance swapping one renowned Sony studio for another.
“I’m super excited to be joining the amazing crew and project over at Naughty Dog, and to be back to Playstation,” Grassetti wrote on social media. “I’m joining [Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann] and his team as art director, to help create the next big thing! A huge thanks to everybody who was involved in making this happen and all my friends from sister studios. I’m hyped and can’t wait to share more about it! Cheers!”
As to what Grassetti’ll be working on at Naughty Dog, that remains shrouded in secrecy. The studio hasn’t released a new game (discounting remasters) since 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2. Its most recently announced project was its standalone The Last of Us multiplayer game – but that was cancelled in December last year.
At the time, Naughty Dog teased it was working on “more than one ambitious, brand-new single player game”, and it seems likely one of these will be The Last of Us Part 3, given the huge success of HBO’s The Last of Us TV adaptation and Neil Druckmann’s recent suggestion there’s “probably one more chapter to this story”. There’s also been speculation the studio is working on a fantasy-themed title – but as to where Raf Grassetti might currently be focusing his energies in his new Naughty Dog role, that remains to be seen.
