Media Molecule co-founder and creative director Mark Healey has confirmed that he is leaving the studio.
In a series of tweets, Healey – who directed Dreams – wrote: “So, after 17 incredible years of co-birthing and building Media Molecule, I have decided it is time for me to fly the nest – set sail and chart a new course – today is my last day at MM.
“From LittleBigPlanet to Dreams and beyond – proud to have played my part and lucky to have jammed with some truly brilliant people – and such a wonderfully talented community which I will continue to be a fan of.”
He added: “But a strong cosmic breeze is pulling me and my pirate heart is awakened. I’m not getting any younger so am going to indulge myself in the winds of my various curiosities for a while and see where they take me.
“So here’s to new beginnings, following one’s heart and exploring the unknown – yo ho ho and a bottle of rum – I’m off on a Pirate adventure! One that involves making games, that is.
It’s not yet clear if there’s extra meaning to Healey’s pirate metaphor – one follower seemingly took this to mean he’ll be joining Rare to work on Sea of Thieves, but there’s no indication that this is the case.
Instead, Healey’s LinkedIn now simply states that he is “self-employed” and “open to work”.
Healey co-founded Media Molecule in 2006, following his roles at Bullfrog and Lionhead, where he worked alongside Peter Molyneux on such titles as Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and Fable.
After Media Molecule was set up, Healey was creative director on the first two LittleBigPlanet games, before moving on to Dreams, where he served as director during the game’s lengthy development (it was first mentioned by the studio in 2012 and was released in 2020).
Healey’s departure comes just six days after Media Molecule announced that it would be ending support for Dreams on September 1.
In an article posted on the game’s official website, the studio has explained that it’s “made the difficult decision to discontinue live support for Dreams after September 1, 2023 to shift our focus to an exciting new project”.
Players will still be able to play, create and share content on the game after September 1, but it will be receiving no further updates after this date.
The game will also be migrating to a new server in late May, at which point players will be given a storage limit of 5GB for their creations.
Media Molecule had previously announced in December that studio co-founder and art director Kareem Ettouney was set to leave the company in early 2023.
