TheUnchartedseries has been a staple franchise associated with the PlayStation brand for well over a decade now. For many players,Unchartedrepresented the first modern video game that brought the Indiana Jones fantasy to life, however,Unchartedquickly became one of PlayStation’s most beloved franchises and characters like Nathan Drake being synonymous with the brand. Developer Naughty Dog made the difficult decision to move to bigger things and hang up Drake’s cape in 2016 withUncharted 4: A Thief’s End, as well as one final story DLC that drastically expanded in scope, eventually turning into the Chloe Fraser-led spin-off,Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
Right now, Naughty Dog is only a few months away from the release of its highly-anticipated follow up toThe Last Of Us, with only a couple of uncorroborated rumors about what the developer may be working on for its next game -supposedly a Naughty Dog sci-fi game. As the owners of theUnchartedIP, Sony has complete control over the future of the series with or without the involvement of Naughty Dog, and based on 2019 job listings for Sony San Diego, it appears the company may want to bring back theUnchartedfranchise under a new development team for the PlayStation 5.
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The Sony San Diego Rumors
Sony’s San Diego Studio is one of fourteen SIE Worldwide Studios, best known for developing the incredibly popularMLB The Showseries. In early 2018, rumors began circulating that Sony had created a new development team within San Diego Studio and the team would be working on a third-person action game alongside another major Sony-owned studio. Speculation started again in January 2019 when it was announced that a new animator had joined the team with credits that includeUncharted 4,The Last of Us, andRed Dead Redemption 2. Animator James Martinchek was welcomed to the team by San Deigo Studio Senior Game Designer Quentin Cobb, who previously worked alongside Martincheck during their days at Naughty Dog.
Why Uncharted Makes Sense
Outside of the 2017 PSVR titleStarBlood Arena, San Diego Studio hasn’t been credited as a support-studio on a game since 2015, giving some credibility to the idea that should be rumored third-person action-adventure game actually exists, it’s one that’s yet to be officially announced by Sony. Another San Diego Studio job listing advertised for a new Lead Character Designer to develop the “next chapter of cinematic story-telling,” a trait that’s not exclusive to theUnchartedseries but one that certainly makes sense with Naughty Dogs development goals for each of the mainline games. Given the history of the franchise and the success of the 2018God Of Warreboot, it’s unlikely that Sony would let go of such a valuable property with the release of thePS5 coming at the end of the year.
If Not San Diego, Then Who?
The initial reason that speculation about San Diego Studio developing a newUnchartedgame began in the first place came down to the fact that the rumored action-adventure game was being developed in conjunction with another major Sony studio. It makes sense that Sony would want to tread carefully with such a high-profile IP and have San Diego Studio working alongside Naughty Dog before taking complete control of the franchise moving forward. Unless Sony has more studio acquisitions taking place in the near future, right now, there’s no other SIE Worldwide Studio that could be working on the project and there’s no way that Sony would outsource the game to a second party studio.
Naughty Dog is moving onto something new. Bend Studio, Santa Monica, andInsomniac Games are all likely working on sequelstoDays Gone(it sold very well),God of War, andMarvel’s Spider-Manrespectively. Polyphony Digital would be in development on the nextGran Turismogame for PS5. Sucker Punch and Media Molecule are both releasing games this year withDreamsandGhosts of Tsushima. Even Sony’s most recent studio to be opened, ForwardWorks is a mobile game developer based in Tokyo. In fact, every SIE Worldwide Studio has one significant reason or another to not be a suitable fit for the next game in theUnchartedfranchise.
Could Uncharted Continue After Nathan Drake?
TheUnchartedfranchise has received universal acclaim from the video game industry and sold a combined total of 44.02 million units worldwide, making it the forty-seventh best-selling video game franchise of all time and beating out huge names likeGuitar Hero, Street Fighter, Fallout,and evenHalf-Life. Naughty Dog’s success comes down to a combination of reasons from gameplay mechanics to memorable setpieces likeUncharted 2’s train sequence, its approach to cinematic storytelling, and the high-quality voice-acting delivered from the likes of Nolan North.
Above all else, one major reason that players kept coming back toUnchartedcame down to its story and characters. Whether its Nathan Drake, Sully, Elena,or even Chloe Fraser, players care about these characters and want to see more from their stories. With that in mind, if Sony was to reboot the franchise from a new developer, the smartest thing that it could do would be to start fresh with a brand new cast of characters and give San Diego Studio the opportunity to leave their own mark with early assistance from Naughty Dog to help capture the right tone and magic that players love.
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Whether there’s a new gameUnchartedcurrently in development or Sony has put the whole franchise on the back burner for the foreseeable future,Unchartedshould and absolutely will beback with the PlayStation 5. Sony knows the value of theUnchartedfranchise and the 2018God Of Warreboot has already proven that when treated properly and carefully, there’s enough magic left to make something incredible for a whole new generation of players. Time will tell whether Nathan Drake will return but withUncharted 4: A Thief’s Endbeing the perfect send-off for those characters, San Diego Studio’s best chance will be to start fresh.
