One of Naughty Dog's longtime developers and programmers, Christian Gyrling, is leaving the Last of Us and Uncharted development studio after a 17-year-long career at the company. The former employee was the studio's former head of technology, who made many contributions to the games developed, along with holding a lot of different positions during his time at Naughty Dog. Gyrling first joined the company as a programmer for the first Uncharted game on the PS3 back in 2007.

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This announcement was made on Naughty Dog's official Twitter page, honoring Gyrling for his contributions during his tenure at the company. "Our head of technology Christian Gyrling has decided to leave Naughty Dog after an amazing 17-year career at our studio," says the Twitter post. Following Gyrling's departure, Travis McIntosh, who had been with Naughty Dog for a similarly long period of 19 years, will be taking his place.

This is the second high-profile departure for the Sony first-party studio, as Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells announced his retirement earlier this past summer, leaving the company after a 25-year career. Outside these departures, Naughty Dog had laid off some contract employees, which led to early rumors of the studio possibly shelving its multiplayer-focused The Last of Us game, though it was confirmed a few days later to be still in development.

Our head of technology Christian Gyrling has decided to leave Naughty Dog after an amazing 17-year career at our studio.

Gryling's replacement, Travis McIntosh, has a similar profile to him, as McIntosh had joined the studio ahead of the first Uncharted's launch. In terms of games that McIntosh had previously worked on at Naughty Dog, he was the lead programmer for various Uncharted games until Lost Legacy as well as both Last of Us games. There are rumors about how Naughty Dog is working on a remaster of The Last of Us: Part 2, which might be the first game with McIntosh in this position. These projects are still only rumors and speculation currently, so they should be taken with a grain of salt until more official information from Naughty Dog is unveiled.