According to foreign media Aroged, one of the core producers of Age of Empires 4, game design director Quinn Duffy, has left the studio after working in Relic for 24 years for nearly 24 years. Quinn Duffy wrote on his resume on the recruitment platform Linkedin that December was his final month at The Permit studio. His notes mention that he is proud of the work he has done for the Age of Empires 4 development team, while he is passionate about historical and RTS-type games.
Quinn Duffy has been with Relic since 1998, initially as a process and economic designer for the space real-time strategy game Homestead, before quickly rising to chief designer and game lead for Impossible Creatures. In addition, he is the lead designer of Warhammer 40K: Starfighter.
In 2010, he began working as RTS Project Director for Relic, where he led the team to launch the controversial Company of Heroes 2. Nevertheless, the game was a huge success. It wasn't until 2016 that he turned to the development of Age of Empires 4, first as project director and then as design director for the project. For now, neither Quinn Duffy nor Permit Studios has given official departures. But in the community forum of Steam's Age of Empires 4, there are already many fans of the game discussing this matter.