Matt Radford – an industry veteran who has previously worked on major games like The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – has spoken about how the march of technology might mean that one day we will look back at the games of today just to appreciate the level of human craftsmanship that went into making them. In an interview with Kiwi Talkz, Radford compared games to classic architecture in this regard.
“The example of the cathedrals in Cologne and, you know, you see these old amazing buildings, these architectural marvels across so much of the world. And that exists as a product of a very unique time where all this art, all this beauty, all this time and suffering went into making something that you don’t make now. You just wouldn’t make an old cathedral like the one in Cologne. And you never will again because the talent doesn’t even exist.”
“The people have moved on, the process, the expertise, and we have better ways of making a building now. And yet none of the buildings look like some of those old architectural marvels, and I wonder if games will be that way as well. Like, we’ll look back at a game like Intergalactic, at a game like Uncharted 4, The Last of Us 2, and just see the amount of acting by people, by humans. The acting and writing, modelling, sculpting, painting, you know, and we’ll marvel at it like, ‘Wow, can you believe that was all done by hand?’”
Looking to the future of game development, Radford acknowledges that “there’s a lot of new technology coming out” that has already impacted how games are being made. “It will change how many people are making games, and in what capacity, and I think Naughty Dog is like ‘let’s just keep this going.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Radford spoke about his time at Naughty Dog working on a number of projects, and even went into detail about how the technological limitations of the PS3 led to the distinctive visual style that sets the Uncharted franchise apart from its contemporaries. Similarly, he also spoke about how moving to the PS4 gave Naughty Dog more freedom to experiment with its visual style thanks to the more powerful hardware and higher amount of memory available to developers.
As for Naughty Dog, the studio is currently working on Intergalactic, and while it doesn’t yet have a release date for the title, the company has confirmed that a full reveal of the game will happen in 2027. Rumors have also indicated that Naughty Dog already has another project lined up following the eventual release of Intergalactic, with strong hints that it might be a brand-new game in the Uncharted franchise.
This secret new project is reportedly being headed up by Shaun Escayg, who has already been offering hints and teases about his project through social media posts. As for when this game might come out, the report indicates that development on it will begin after Naughty Dog ships Intergalactic.
