Naughty Dog lost two more high profile employees on Friday, as Jacob Minkoff and Taylor Kurosaki have left the company and joined Infinity Ward. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Minkoff and Taylor announced their departure on Twitter on Friday, and expressed excitement about working with the Call of Duty Developer.
Very psyched to share that I’ve joined the phenomenal team at @InfinityWard as the studio’s narrative director. To infinity and beyond!
— Taylor Kurosaki (@taylorkurosaki) August 1, 2014
New job! Design Director at Infinity Ward. Love ND; can’t wait to play Uncharted 4 as a fan. Excited to work with the talented team at IW!
— Jacob Minkoff (@JacobMinkoff) August 1, 2014
Taylor Kurosaki worked as a narrative design lead, and his credits include Uncharted 2 and 3. Minkoff might be a a more significant loss, as he was the lead designer behind Uncharted 3 and The Last of US. Acquiring his services is clearly a good move for Infinity Ward.
These moves come on the heels of some high profile departures from the beloved developer, but this might also be related to Infinty Ward’s merger with Neversoft studios earlier this year. If the intention is to refresh Infinity Ward to produce better, higher quality games, then the addition of Minkoff and Kurosaki to the team is an excellent move.
