Nathan Gary is stepping down as President of Megan Ellison's Annapurna, a position he has held since 2021, The Hollywood Reporter learned. Gary will also leave the company.
Annapurna’s co-heads of indie games, Deborah Mars and Nathan Vella, are also leaving.
Hector Sanchez, who was recently hired by Epic Games and named the company's president of new media and interactivity, will oversee the company's gaming efforts. Annapurna is looking to expand into AAA, or big-budget, games.
Under Ellison and his leadership, the company will integrate its in-house gaming operations with the rest of Annapurna’s divisions, which include film, TV and theater.
Gary was promoted to president after his time as head of interactivity, co-founding the company's gaming division. Over the past two years, Annapurna has risen in the indie gaming industry, producing award-winning indie games such as What Remains of Edith Finch AND Straythe latter sold millions of units in its first month of release and won the video game equivalent of an Oscar in 2022.
Annapurna, which faced notorious financial difficulties in 2019 and 2020, will soon present Marielle Heller's highly anticipated horror comedy Night Troywith Amy Adams, at the Toronto International Film Festival. Annapurna recently released Netflix's Nimonathe Oscar-nominated animated film and animated TV series Sausage Festival: Foodtopia with Amazon. In the theater, the company was behind Sarah Paulson's Tony-winning play Appropriate and the next West End staging of the play Dear England From football manager Gareth Southgate.