10 Video Games That Made Their Creators Leave The Industry

The video game industry is a harsh, unforgiving beast at the best of times, and despite the culture of crunch being exposed years ago, it continues to be persistent practise at most AAA studios.

While it's little surprise that many mid-level programmers end up burning out from the business after just a few short years, it's perhaps more unexpected that even the creative leads of these projects are often driven away from the entire industry.

Though writers, directors, designers, and other senior roles are certainly more protected, that doesn't mean they too aren't frustrated by the agonising push-and-pull between creative and business.

And so, these 10 video game creators all decided to leave the industry to pursue less-stressful pastures, whether a result of a game's failure, unfavourable working conditions, or perhaps even the toxicity of the fandom itself.

While in some cases these artists did eventually make a return to the industry in a different capacity, in each case they made emphatic exits when the chips were down, confirming that a lifelong career in the gaming industry is only for the most fiercely committed...

There's perhaps no more baffling and infuriating case of a brilliant - if troubled - creator being driven out of the gaming industry than Phil Fish, the designer of 2012's beloved puzzle-platformer Fez.

At this point in his career, Fish was already well known for being an extremely outspoken and "eccentric" personality, and this was only exacerbated by both the enormous attention the game itself received and Fish's own memorable appearance in the documentary film Indie Game: The Movie.

Fez 2 was announced at E3 2013 to the joy of fans worldwide, though a mere month later, Fish got into a Twitter argument with journalist Marcus Beer and not only cancelled the sequel in response, but quit the gaming industry altogether.

This seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, effectively, with Fish citing the general negativity of the industry and the mistreatment he'd received on social media throughout Fez's production.

Though Fish has consulted on a few projects in the years since, he's effectively retired from mainline games development, and in his own words, has taken the money and run.

As brilliant as the man undeniably is, he clearly isn't cut out for the brutal world of gamedev in the age of social media - and honestly, who can blame him?