Insomniac Games founder and CEO Ted Price is stepping down from his role atop the Sony Interactive Entertainment-owned studio after more than 30 years running the company behind PlayStation‘s “Ratchet & Clank” franchise and “Marvel’s Spider-Man” games.
Taking over for Price, who will be staying with the PlayStation studio through March, are a trio of Insomniac vets who will serve as co-heads upon his retirement: Ryan Schneider, Chad Dezern and Jen Huang. Each of the Insomniac co-studio heads will have a different purview, arenas which they have already been settling into over the past 12 months.
“During the past year, I had the opportunity to work with the senior leadership team at Insomniac to create a succession plan that I know will provide the continuity, stability and strong leadership necessary to deliver more of what our fans cherish over the next several decades,” Price said. “So also today, I’m extremely happy to announce that Chad Dezern, Ryan Schneider and Jen Huang will become Insomniac Games’ new Co-Studio Heads. I believe strongly that for us to continue our success, we need leaders at the top who are intimately familiar with how we do things, leaders who have helped build our culture and our processes, and who have earned people’s trust.”
Founded by Price in 1994, “Spyro the Dragon” maker Insomniac Games was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment for $229 million in 2019.
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“For many years, Chad, Jen and Ryan have been instrumental in making Insomniac what we are today,” Price said. “I’ve seen each lead major initiatives here which have positively changed Insomniacs’ lives. Plus, they’ve consistently demonstrated the kind of collaboration and transparency that’s part of our DNA. And just as important, their skillsets are truly complementary.”
Price will be honored by The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) as a Hall of Fame Inductee for the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, Variety has learned.
Dezern says that as the new team takes over “on great projects and with a really ambitious roadmap,” “our main thing to do first is to ensure continuity. “We want to continue building on what we’ve started and really bringing great games to the world,” Dezern says.
Huang added: “We work together every single day. We partner up on solving problems with all of Insomniac, it’s something that we strengthen actively all the time. We solve problems together. We show up with our best selves every day with the studios. And what’s great is we have a unified shared belief in our vision and our mission as a studio, and we use that as a guiding light in the way we make decisions and how we work with everybody here.”
Dezern will oversee the creative and development groups in shaping long-term project strategy, establishing production goals, promoting innovative development practices, and coordinating with creative partners at PlayStation Studios and Marvel Games.
“My role is about supporting our creative and development groups as they build games with a strong vision, compelling story, fun gameplay, and a high degree of polish,” Dezern said.
Huang will head up the content and operations groups, supporting development teams to achieve production goals across all projects. He will oversee content production, production strategy, project management, external development partnerships and business operations.
“There’s definitely really big key trends in the industry,” Huang said. “We see consolidation, obviously there’s layoffs. We can’t speak for the industry as a whole or other game companies, but at our studio, we’re focused on making games smartly and ethically. We gage our entire studio as a whole to build the right development teams to achieve our development goals so that we can meet our fan expectations and make incredible games. So we’re always at the forefront of thinking about what’s best for the studio, what’s best for the games, and what’s best for employees and fans.”
Schneider will lead internal and external communications, managing partnerships with many PlayStation Studios, SIE and Marvel teams, and supporting shared studio resource teams like community and core technology. He is also sponsor of Insomniac’s Culture Council, committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative workplace environment.
“We’re very aware of fan expectations, and we strive to meet them and exceed them with every game we make and we want to just continue that run together,” Schneider said. “We know what makes Insomniac special, and we know what it takes to keep us evolving and thriving into the future.”
Looking to the future, the new Insomniac chiefs are very much staying the course with existing projects, but are not ready to solidify release plans for those upcoming titles, including “Marvel’s Wolverine.” While Dezern would not confirm or deny a 2025 release for the game, he noted: “We’ve announced ‘Wolverine,’ and we’d love to talk more about ‘Wolverine,’ but we have to be like Logan today, and remain very stoic until it’s time to pop the claws down the road. As much as we’re as much as we have pent up excitement, we got to hold on to it. So that’s, that’s about as much as we could say about our upcoming projects today.”
The Insomniac team is also interested in opportunities for more game-to-screen adaptations on the heels of the success PlayStation has seen with HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
“I think back to the ‘Ratchet & Clank’ film from several years ago. And we kind of got an early start on that. So, of course, we’re interested in that kind of thing. We love ‘Ratchet & Clank’ in particular,” Schneider said.
Dezern joined Insomniac Games in 1998. His contributions span five console generations, from “Spyro: Ripto’s Rage” for PlayStation 1 to “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” for PlayStation 5. He helped develop the look of the “Ratchet & Clank” series as an environment artist, guided the art department through the transition to the PlayStation 3 as an Art Director, and co-launched Insomniac’s Durham, NC studio as Studio Director. In 2017, he joined the studio’s senior leadership team as chief creative officer and served in that role through Sony Interactive Entertainment’s acquisition of Insomniac in 2019. In his most recent role as head of creative, he supported Insomniac’s talented creative, story, and research teams across all projects.
Huang joined Insomniac Games in 2016 and contributed to twelve acclaimed and successful titles, including “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” and “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.” Huang served as CFO through Insomniac’s acquisition by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2019 and then held the role of head of finance.
Schneider has spent more than two decades at Insomniac Games working on a slew of games from “Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal” to “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.” A longtime member of the studio’s senior leadership team, Schneider served as chief brand officer through Insomniac’s acquisition by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2019. He later held multiple senior roles, including head of brand and leadership strategy.