Uncharted 4 director leaves Naughty Dog for Riot

UPDATE 13:51 PST

Sony passed along the following statement regarding Richmond's departure: "SCEA can confirm Justin Richmond has left Naughty Dog to pursue other opportunities. The development timeline of Uncharted will not be impacted."

The original story appears below.

Uncharted 4 game director Justin Richmond has just announced that he is leaving his position at Naughty Dog to work for League of Legends developer Riot.

In a statement to IGN, Richmond wrote, "I have, in fact, made the decision to leave Naughty Dog. I love the company and the people and know that they will continue to create awesome games going forward. On a happier note, after careful consideration and exploration I have joined Riot Games. There is some really innovative stuff going on here that I can't wait to be a part of."

The PS4-exclusive Uncharted game was announced last year at the PlayStation 4 launch event in New York, but it's made headlines recently with the departure of lead writer Amy Hennig. While original reports posited that Hennig was "forced out" of the company by The Last of Us creative directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, Naughty Dog clarified in a later statement that they "were NOT involved in what transpired."

We've reached out to Sony for further clarification on the departure and to comment on whether this will impact the development of any current projects at Naughty Dog.