With all the turmoil that has gone on at Naughty Dog; is there cause for concern? Will Naughty Dog be one of the premier developers in the 8th generation?
During the seventh generation of consoles there were few developers that were better than Naughty Dog. To me, they were the best developer in the industry. We saw quality and quantity from Naughty Dog. They released four games from 2007 to 2013 and those four games were critically acclaimed games in the Uncharted trilogy and The Last of Us.
As you may or may not know, Naughty Dog has had quite a number of notable departures recently. So many departures that it has made us wonder whether or not Naughty Dog will continue to be one of the best video game developers in the industry. And whether or not there is cause for concern in regards to the Uncharted series.
Up to this point, here is the Naughty Dog timeline since the teaser trailer of the next Uncharted game:
- November 14th, 2013: Uncharted teaser video released.
- March 5th, 2014: Writer, Creator, and Director of the Uncharted series, Amy Hennig, suddenly leaves Naughty Dog; Joins Visceral Games, April 4th, 2014.
- March 27th, 2014: Game Director, Justin Richmond, leaves Naughty Dog, makes a statement and joins Riot Games.
- April 21st, 2014: Todd Stashwick, actor and writer who was set to voice a character in Uncharted 4, is recast and he joins Amy Hennig over at Visceral Games.
- April 21st, 2014: Art Director, Nate Wells, leaves Naughty Dog to join studio Giant Sparrow.
- April 28th, 2014: Lead artist, Michael Knowland, departs after working for Naughty Dog since January of 2011.
With a studio like Naughty Dog, departures are a surprise. Naughty Dog is such a stable studio that you rarely hear of anybody leaving. But, when there are departures – and when they are key, big name, departures – your ears perk up quite a bit.
How’s the Uncharted game going? One of many questions that can be asked.
Obviously, Naughty Dog wishes they didn’t tease the next Uncharted game. If they hadn’t, the narrative would be a lot different. We wouldn’t be speculating whether or not there is turmoil at Naughty Dog. Had they not teased Uncharted 4, and Amy Hennig, Justin Richmond, etc. all left, then we would be thinking that Naughty Dog isn’t working on an Uncharted game; maybe they are making a new IP.
Instead, we are speculating about what the state of Naughty Dog is and just what is the state of the next Uncharted game? What direction are they headed in terms of making games? What’s the future of the Uncharted franchise? What direction is the Uncharted franchise going to go? These are questions we won’t have an answer for now, but maybe sometime in the future.
As with everything in all walks of life in every sport and entertainment, every great dynasty and every great empire there is a rise and fall. There is a prime, a peak, and a fall off. There are numerous examples.
In the 90’s the Dallas Cowboys were the team of the decade in American Football and since then they haven’t done much. In Football, or Soccer as Americans might call it, Manchester United have won 7 Premier League titles since 2000, but they had a bad year and they look as if they will struggle for awhile.
In the video game world – in the 6th generation – Studio Japan’s Team Ico were one of the best developers in the industry at the time with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but they were silent in the 7th generation as they were developing (and we assume continue to be developing) The Last Guardian and basically fell off the map.
As mentioned, above, there are numerous examples, and perhaps this will be the case for Naughty Dog. They had a great run in the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but then they really exploded and hit their peak in the PlayStation 3 era with Uncharted and The Last of Us, and again, cementing, to me, that they were the best video game developer in the industry.
Naughty Dog had a fantastic run, an unbelievable run with great game after great game, but with all these departures and with how high they set the bar, they are due to come down eventually. Perhaps, Naughty Dog won’t be hitting on all cylinders in the PlayStation 4, but perhaps not. Maybe, just maybe, Naughty Dog will continue their run of success in the PlayStation 4. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’ll be tough to duplicate their success.
Personally, I do think just because Naughty Dog has raised the bar so high after four incredible games on the PlayStation 3 that they will come back down to Earth. They’ve raised the bar so high that I just don’t think they can raise it any higher. Whatever their next game is that they release I don’t think it will be better than the Uncharted trilogy nor will I think it will be better than The Last of Us. It’s bound to happen eventually.
It’ll be interesting to see how the next Uncharted game is. It’ll be interesting to see just where the Uncharted series is going to go and just how different it will be with some new blood running the show.
Who will be the minds behind the new Uncharted? How good will Uncharted be? How different will it be from the previous 3 games? Again, these are questions we won’t know right away, but definitely sometime in the near future. Perhaps at E3. Doubtful, but possible.
What about an open world Uncharted game? Hmm…
Personally, I am excited about the new possibilities of a radically new, different Uncharted. I love the three Uncharted games, to me, those are some of my favorite games of all time, but sometimes you can have to much of a good thing. Maybe a forth game with the same premise, the same sort of style could have just gotten old and stale.
Maybe with this new Uncharted game it will be radically different and that’s what exciting and intriguing about a new brain trust running the Uncharted series now, or at least, with this new Uncharted game.
Well, I think that’s about it. I believe I’ve said my piece and all that I wanted to say about this. I leave it up to you, the reader. What do you think of the Naughty Dog situation? Leave your comments down below, and hey, for news on Naughty Dog you can check out their website here, twitter here, and Facebook here.
