Stig Asmussen Parts Ways with Santa Monica Studios

A bit of background before we dive further into this story. Stig Asmussen, has been a part of Santa Monica Studios for over a decade. During his time there, Stig has worked as an Environment Artist (God of War), Art Director (God of War 2), and finally as Creative Director (God of War 3). Most recently, Stig had been working on a brand new IP for Santa Monica Studios for the PlayStation 4. During the last two years that Stig has been working on a new project, Corey Barlog, Creative Director of God of War 2 rejoined the studio to work on what many believe is another GoW title. Besides these two titles, it was believed that a third project was taking place though little was known about it. Many have now come to believe that the secret project at SMS was a scraped sci-fi shooter which was revealed last month, after a massive layoff hit Santa Monica Studios which helped shed light on the game that will likely never been seen.

While details remain scarce, it seems likely that it was none other than Stig Asmussen, who was the lead of the canned project as the long-time veteran, has just parted ways with Santa Monica Studios.

As we pointed out, details remain light. It’s currently unclear if there were truly three separate projects going on at Santa Monica Studios which would means in the span of a few weeks, one project was cancelled and another just lost its lead. Or, the more likely scenario is that there are two projects within the studio, which would mean that it was Stig who was leading the now cancelled sci-fi game. Since the news broke, Sony has confirmed Stig’s departure.

SCEA can confirm that Stig Asmussen is no longer with Santa Monica Studio.

We’ll be sure to have more for you in regards to this shocking departure as we learn more. In addition to layoffs at Santa Monica Studios, Amy Hennig (Game Director – Uncharted 1-3) and Jack Tretton (President of SCEA) have all recently parted ways with PlayStation.