Ah. Shame on me for not reading the article. Usually associate the director of a big game as high up enough in the studio that they still get good money.

In that case... this is completely pointless and is just an attempt to avoid needing to figure out the right tone for the "This is the worst day of my life and I am so sad that I just fired a couple dozen people because of my business decisions" linkedin post that is usually associated with the mass layoffs. He isn't even metaphorically falling on his sword. He is just washing his hands of it.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

From the linked article:

“Ryan deeply believed in that project and bringing players together through the joy in it,” said one former developer, who said he felt Ellis had poured a great deal of himself into the game, leading to a ton of stress. “Regardless of there being things that could have been done differently throughout development...he’s a good human, and full of heart.”

Sources told Kotaku that Ellis was too emotional to speak at points during a post-launch studio-wide meeting after it had become clear that the game was bombing.