One of Media Molecule's founders, Mark Healey, has announced his departure from the studio. Sharing his news on social media, he says today will be his last day at the PS Studios developer.
"So, after [17] years of co-birthing and building Media Molecule, I have decided it is time for me to fly the nest [...] today is my last day at MM," Healey writes on Twitter. He goes on to say he's "proud to have played my part and lucky to have jammed with some truly brilliant people" during his time at the studio. It's not known precisely what he has planned next, though he does suggest he'll be staying in the industry.
A statement from studio director Siobhan Reddy has emerged on Media Molecule's Twitter page:
In it, Reddy describes Healey as "a creative driving force for the studio throughout the years" and says he has "strongly influenced Media Molecule in many brilliant ways". She thanks him "for everything", and promises the team will "always stay a bit weird".
Healey was one of four Lionhead Studios employees who broke off and formed Media Molecule, the others being David Smith, Alex Evans, and Kareem Ettouney — of whom the latter two have also left the studio in recent times.
This news comes shortly after the announcement that Media Molecule will soon be putting an end to its live service support for Dreams. Following 1st September, there will be no more updates to the game, but it will remain online to allow the community to continue playing, creating, and sharing. Planned updates between now and then include a made-in-Dreams game called Tren, a final patch to Create mode, and a big server migration.
[source twitter.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 39
End of an era, so many high profile MM staff now gone.
Thank you, great and unique works.
Well, Mark was always interested in something original and unique. Guess, next MM project will be more generic... and probably better-selling.
Its a natural point to move on now, but still the end of an era.
I hope we see more of his unique thinking in whatever he does next.
Respect.
I wished they released Dreams on PC, with mouse support.
LBP 1 left an impact in gaming.
Just seems so odd that they never added Dreams to PS+ to boost the player count. Though with no monetisation strategy I guess there were fair reasons. Great product, half-baked delivery.
Wishing Mark well on his next endeavour.
MM should made normal single player games with online like little big planet rather than still making content on dream, realize the game clearly failed and make another games.
I think they should start working on Dreams 2: The Nightmare Edition.
Had seen something tweeted that implied he was going to Rare
https://twitter.com/jimryannot/status/1647909677294931969?s=46&t=5v4hCnVd4hiA1i1XiZgKag
He has liked that post
Mark is a creative beast, loved rag doll kung-fu and LBP1. LBP & Dreams had his name all over it. He's a director that innovates and creates memorable experiences
Hopefully he goes to work for a company that encourages creativity and making something a bit outside of the box.
That’s not really PlayStation’s bag anymore.
@Sakisa its that charm that's been missing a while
One things for sure the "Games" industry is in for a shake up....If you wanna see where its going just look at Electronic Arts or E.A. limp lifeless and no soul....so so far from Arts.
@IAmAshCohen17 I was just thinking he'd probably go to Rare and maybe join the Sea of Thieves team or Everwild, wherever tf that game is at the moment.
Looked at your link and he tweeted saying pirates so must be Sea of Thieves.
Best of luck for the future! Dreams was not my type of game, but i respected it a great deal. From his tweets, it sounds like he is joining Rare, But unconfirmed at the minute.
Long CV with the likes of Bullfrog & Lionhead nevermind MM itself. Rather enjoyed LBP 1 & 2, both as a single & multiplayer platform experience but also the wonderous creations players came up with as DLC.👍Always a great shame they never got the ps4 remaster treatment.
Dreams was undoubtedly ambitious...just unfortunate that its included creations didn't really have the broader appeal of Little Big Planet's Sackboy & its platform action to accompany its creation tools.
Dreams sadly a bit more akin to something like the old C64 creation called SEUCK (Shoot-em-Up-Construction-Kit),by Sensible Software. Got some people started on games creation, but not necessarily a bigger wider general audience.
Mark also ironically had the occasional twitter video of what a C64 Little Big Planet demo might look like!🤓
Guess time will tell if MM's next project will have a more live service/mtx orientation to it.😕
Hopefully Mark Healy's creative talents are put to good use wherever they might go.
Imagine if he decided to make a LBP4 for the Xbox to see how that works for him
Best to jump ship from Sony, creativity is basically dead there now. Not all of these projects work but I’ll take one of them over the different flavours of open world yawn-a-thons.
Good I guess. Just like Sony Japan, they're just not cutting it.
@KaijuKaiser I mean, I don't see Sony making anything like Pentiment (which I know, not AAA so clearly doesn't count to SOME people) or making some wild swings like Nintendo with Ring Fit or Labo. Not after shutting down Japan Studio. Sony doesn't like risks.
They've got the AAA open world market full of all the wide ranges of brown, green, and gray to go around though, so damn creative, wow! How exciting that Sony is so good at putting out the game that the mindless masses want over and over again with a slightly different skin.
Removed - flaming/arguing
Yet more creative talent walks away. Seems a bit of a co-incidence that this happens the moment New Sony pull the plug on Dreams.
Perhaps Sony could use that as the PS5's moniker "Pulls the plug on your Dreams"? They've been missing one since Old Sony's "4 the Players"
Why Studio Japan got the bullet but media molecule has been allowed to flounder this long is the biggest mystery
@KaijuKaiser Where is the PlayStation equivalent of Hi Fi Rush? Oh wait, modern Sony will never produce Japanese games like that again.
@KaijuKaiser we will shut up when Sony produces games like that.(they won’t though , Gravity Rush was the closet thing and they shut down the studio.)
Didn’t sea of thieves become a smash hit on Steam also?
I guarantee this has to with them being told they have to make something more in line with what Jim Bob is making all the other studios do.
If people cared half enough about Dreams in the comments then they were on their PlayStations then maybe it would have gotten more support.
Same goes for Gravity Rush and The Last Guardian, I got those games day one without hesitation but too many didn't care.
And still Sony have released games like Sackboy, Destruction AllStars, Concrete Genie, Astro's Playroom and Returnal in the last few years. None of those are typical tentpole titles some accuse Sony of only doing.
@AdamNovice Sackboy was a run of the mill platformer inferior to LBP, Astro was a pack in tech demo and Destruction all stars was mid. This is how low the bar is now, it doesn’t even remotely compare to their PS3 output yet alone PS2 or PS1. NEW IP’s like crazy, not just endless sequels from the previous generation like now.
@KaijuKaiser Japanese games went from being a focus of PlayStation to a complete afterthought. What did you expect, everyone to be silent and just accept whatever Sony does? Since you care about sales the most I’m sure you’ll love their live service games.
Sony isn't going to pump endless money into games that aren't selling.
When it comes to the Playstation ecosystem, it's less that Sony is totally unwilling to invest in smaller projects, and more that they've cultivated an audience of people who are primarily interested in buying blockbusters. Of course, the feedback loop from this is leading to an increasing homogenization of Sony's first-party portfolio.
In general, I expect any 'creative' projects they have left will become VR game fodder.
@Daveuppercut For real. Dreams enjoyed years of support, but Sony wanted to cut off online support for Gravity Rush 2 less than a year after release.
@Daveuppercut MM is a significantly smaller studio with something like 50 employees? It basically an indie studio. With how much stuff that Studio Japan was working on, and the employee count. They needed to stay far more profitable.
It why Sony had to "close" them... They really just reduce the head count of the studio and renamed it.
@AdamNovice They Don't Care they just want something to be upset about. these are the same people that start complainng when sony does step outside their norm and make something different.
MM just had a hard time. You have to remember, that the team was making something similar to dream way back, with some form of puppetry using move controllers but the move controllers just never took off and that snowballed them into making dreams.
I think dreams just wasn't marketed right from the get go and with 0 support on pc or a way to sell your creations, it's time the team move on.
Its a shame seeing the founders all leaving but they have been there since the begining.
End of an era and let's hope MM find its way.
My guess is they have left but not without cementing whats coming next from them.
Well... media molecule is a mystery unlike other sony studios. They are smaller, sure, but they hardly make any games and they are always alternative games that don't sell much.
It is a mystery to me that they haven't been closed down yet.
Sad when these games don’t do very well. I’m quite a creative person, I work in fabrication for example. So you may imagine how into games like LBP I was. Dreams was next level, but too many people are only interested in ‘shoot the cool gun 6’
I think this would have actually been a huge hit if they ported it to PC, but due to the nature of the game it's easy to imagine why Sony didn't want Dreams in a platform that allows for so much, er, creative freedom with assets.
If that isn't concrete evidence we're never getting a native PS5 version, I don't know what would.
So Mark Healey, David Smith, Alex Evans, and Kareem Ettouney have all left and all have left for a reason. I suspect that's edicts coming down from Ryan et al about what they WILL and MUST be working on.
Does make me wonder how Dreams lasted as long as it did? But when that creative freedom is lost, staff walk out.
Expect a new Studio from the leavers soon - probably cross-platform is the best that New Sony can hope for.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...