Richard Lemarchand To Spend Time At Naughty Dog Studios Very Soon

Posted Nov 7 2013 by Dylan Zellmer with 2 Comments

Richard Lemarchand is well-known for his role at Sony first party developer Naughty Dog. He was the co-creator of the Uncharted series and was very close to the creation of Nathan Drake proper. He’s since left the studio to become a professor at The School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. As you may expect, many of his dear friends still work at Naughty Dog, so it’s not strange to hear that he keeps up with the old crew.

So why are we even here? Well, a small tidbit from our conversation we had today at GDC Next rang true and caused my heart to thump a bit. During our chat Lemarchand revealed that, “Over the winter break I’m going to be heading over to the studio (Naughty Dog)” This statement literally felt like a Freudian slip. Up until that point I hadn’t pressed Lemarchand for information about Naughty Dog’s current or future work. Why is that relevant? Like I said before, he keeps up with the crew, but there’s a difference between going out for drinks and spending a winter break at the development studio.

After that I simply asked where he’d like to see Nathan Drake in the future, which was met with an impenetrable stone wall. In reference to the question, Lemarchand answered, “I’d better keep those to myself for now”. Why would someone who’s not with the studio anymore, and presumably not working with them, not be able to answer such a hypothetical question? He also had a pretty good laugh about the “Uncharted in space” rumor.

Is Lemarchand heading to the studio to offer a bit of creative help to the team after his hiatus? He’d mentioned that he was just becoming comfortable with the fact that he’s a professor, and that he “Has more plates to keep spinning.” nowadays. Maybe he’s at the point where he can offer spiritual guidance to the team while maintaining his new position.

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Dylan Zellmer

EIC at iGame Responsibly

Dylan splits time between games journalism, designing video games, and playing them. Outside of his deep involvement in the games industry, he enjoys It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shameless, A Song of Ice and Fire, fitness, and family.