Ghost of Yōtei Studio Co-Founder Brian Fleming is Stepping Down From Leadership Position

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Brian Fleming, a co-founder of the studio behind Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch Productions, is leaving his leadership role. He’s been preparing for this transition for the past year, and will officially step down at the end of 2025. Jason Connell and Adrian Bentley, who have both been key creative and technical leaders at the studio, will be taking over leadership.

Fleming has led the studio since its founding in 1997. It officially joined PlayStation in 2000, and under Fleming’s direction, the team created many popular games, including the Sly Cooper trilogy for PS2 and the inFamous series on PS3. Following the 2014 release of inFamous First Light for PS4, the studio began developing its biggest hit, Ghost of Tsushima.

Following Fleming’s departure, both Connell and Bentley have been long-time members of the Sucker Punch Productions team. Connell was a co-director on both Ghost of Tsushima and its upcoming sequel, Ghost of Yōtei. Bentley, as technical director, led the studio’s engineering and production. Now, Connell, Bentley, and Nate Fox will all share creative leadership roles at Sucker Punch.

As a long-time fan, I was really touched by Sony’s statement about Brian. They said his leadership and ideas were key to building the amazing, creative, and collaborative environment at the studio – and that everything Jason, Adrian, and the whole team do moving forward will be built on the strong foundation he created. It’s a really nice way to acknowledge his impact!

Following the positive reception to Ghost of Yōtei earlier this year, Fleming had already discussed the studio’s future plans. He stated in October that Sucker Punch Productions will focus on completing one game at a time, rather than dividing its resources across several projects simultaneously.

He shared this during an interview, explaining that he’s unsure what the studio will work on next. He wants to avoid spreading his teams too thin by starting too many projects at once. He also mentioned they have plenty of ideas, but can only focus on one at a time.

Ultimately, whether we continue working on Ghost or return to Sly, our biggest constraint is wanting to dedicate enough time and attention to do one project really well. We can only focus on one thing at a time. If we could handle multiple projects simultaneously, we might be able to do remasters or address fan requests, but we can’t spread ourselves too thin.

He explained that you really need to choose your strongest idea, because you only get one major opportunity every five years. It’s not that there are no good options, but you can’t pursue them all. This decision is as significant as choosing a college and a field of study, but it happens much less frequently.

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2025-12-17 14:11