UPDATE 11/9/23: Following last week’s announcement that Donald Mustard, chief creative officer at Epic Games, would be retiring from the company at the end of this month, it’s been revealed that Charlie Wen will be taking over the role.
Wen has worked across both games and movies during his 25-year career, and he was notably responsible for designing iconic God of War protagonist Kratos while serving as director of visual development at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Since then, he’s co-founded and headed Marvel Studios’ visual development department, which handled the design and world-building needed to bring all Marvel’s heroes into a cohesive cinematic universe, and he briefly headed film development at League of Legends developer Riot Games.
Announcing his new role as chief creative officer at Epic Games on social media, Wen said he was “deeply grateful to everyone who has come alongside me thus far”, adding, “The journey ahead promises to be truly epic!”
ORIGINAL STORY 8/89/23: Donald Mustard, Fortnite boss and chief creative officer at Epic Games, has announced his retirement after 25 years in the games industry.
Mustard rose to prominence at Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade developer Chair Entertainment, a studio he co-founded in 2005. Chair was acquired by Epic Games in 2008 and Mustard would eventually become the company’s chief creative officer in 2016 – where he would oversee the meteoric rise of global video game phenomenon Fortnite.