Insomniac CEO Ted Price Announced His Upcoming March Retirement

Insomniac, Ryan Schneider, Jen Huang, Chad Dezern

After 30 years of developing and leading games, Insomniac CEO Ted Price has officially announced his retirement. Price has led numerous projects since 1994 with his final project, Marvel’s Wolverine in the works. Price has informed the gaming community that he thought about retiring since last year.

He then says, “For me, […] it was simply time to step aside and let others pave the way for our team. […] To continue our success, we need leaders who intimately know how we do things, helped build our culture and processes, and earned people’s trust.” He has chosen three of Insomniac’s best workers to lead the next generation of developers.

Ryan Schneider

In 2009, Schneider announced his debut as Insomniac’s community director. He joined the studio during the development of Rachet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Since then, his devotion and hard work promoted him to numerous roles. Schneider became Head of Franchise Strategy & Studio Relations in 2014 when Rachet & Clank PS4 was announced with a movie tie-in. He was later promoted to Head of Brand & Leadership Strategies, and entrusted to communicate with Sony Interactive.

His roles have prepared him for the responsibilities needed to teach future Insomniac developers. He tells Playstation.Blog, “I’m ensuring through communications, coaching, and culture developments that what Insomniac says to the world about itself. […] Our games match what we believe and how we act inside our company.”

Chad Dezern

Dezern has worked with Insomniac since their PS1 debut. He worked on classics like Spyro the Dragon as an environment artist. He was later promoted to Head Creative Director due to his curiosity and passion for interactive storytelling. He’s also responsible for the fantastic open world of Marvel’s Spiderman franchise. Dezern isn’t afraid to break limits either when it comes to different gameplay types. His determination helped him earn VR hits like The Unspoken and Stormland.

With Price entrusting Dezern, he will be supervising Insomniac’s projects to determine creative gameplay and presentation. He shared the secrets with Playstation.Blog on the studio’s success. He said, “[…]Mainly that magic happens when talented people build on each other’s ideas, even as they change one another to advance their craft. In my new role, I’m excited to work with Ryan and Jen to continue Insomniac’s tradition of creative collaboration.”

Jen Huang

Huang has only been on the team for eight years and quickly worked his way to the top as Chief Financial Officer. According to his LinkedIn bio, he studied as an imagineer for The Walt Disney Company. He later dove into tech, finances, and innovation when he joined TiVo in 2007. He brought his talents to Insomniac in 2016 to market Rachet & Clank PS4. Huang soon fell in love with the studio’s positive work environment as he understood their philosophy. With great cooperation, you can produce quality games and people  will come back for more.

He has been assisting Insomniac in business operations, project production and planning, and partnerships. Outside of the studio, he promotes visual arts and culture at Glendale’s libraries. Huang even shows his enthusiasm aloud to PlayStation.Blog, “I’m passionate about driving innovations that elevate our studio and community.”

Insomniac Lives On

Ted Price chose a strong three-leader team who understood what Insomniac needs to thrive. It was a brave move to announce his upcoming retirement. While many will miss him, his choice reminds us that people will move on to later things in their lives. They will be confident once they feel ready to pass their work to the next generation. What Dezern, Schneider, and Huang cherish most is community. To them, without the people behind the games, the studio would disappear. Price will continue developing games until the end of March 2025.

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