Fryer noted from her own extensive experience in overseeing game development on a wide range of projects that a typical multiplayer game tends to require a lot of planning, especially in its earlier production stages. She praised Naughty Dog for not falling into the “sunk cost” fallacy, since it had already invested quite a bit of money in its development before eventually cancelling the whole thing.

“A lot of people are saying they should have just finished the game and shipped it because it was so close, and I understand how frustrating it must be for the players who were looking forward to this game,” said Fryer. “But I think that’s missing the bigger picture because the truth is that this is a classic example of the sunk cost fallacy. And I’ve seen it play out many times before, where you have a studio that’s already spent many years and millions of dollars, and they feel like they have to ship the game anyway, that they have no choice, even when they know the long-term live service support will be brutal. Then the game comes out half-baked, the team burns out on endless updates, and it usually ends badly.”

“Naughty Dog didn’t do that. They made the harder choice. They looked at the road ahead, and they realized that they should stop instead of risking turning the entire studio into a live service operation that was only going to be able to support one big title for years. In my opinion, that was the right call, even though it hurt the team that worked so hard on it. They chose to go back to what the bread and butter of their studio was, single-player narrative games.”

Fryer’s criticisms were primarily aimed at the leadership of Naughty Dog for having continuously supported the development of the live-service game. In fact, she believes that the project shouldn’t have been greenlit to begin with. Among other things, she questions the lack of planning and analysis, which led to a seven-year-long development period that ended with cancellation.

“I keep coming back to the bigger question of why did they start this game in the first place,” she said. “Where was the planning? Live service games are not a mystery. There’s plenty of data out there that they could have looked at to understand what it would take to do this type of game. You’ve got new maps. You’ve got new modes, weapons, seasons, balance patches. It’s an infinite treadmill. Any studio leader could have run the numbers on what a team Naughty Dog size could realistically support. They could have seen pretty clearly that a team the size of Naughty Dog could never support a live service game and all of their amazing cinematic single player games. It wasn’t possible.

“But instead of doing that analysis, they went ahead and let the game go forward. They let it run for seven years. Eventually, Bungie was brought in to do an analysis in 2023, and their reality check on player retention and what it really takes is what finally convinced people that it might be a problem.”

It is worth noting that former director Vinit Agarwal has spoken fondly about the project and discussed the disappointment he felt when it was eventually cancelled. In an interview, he said that it “was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on the game, and it was soul-crushing.” Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has also spoken about the push for live-service games at PlayStation, and how he wasn’t really a fan of the idea.

“They’ll set internal deadlines, and treat them like actual, external deadlines,” he said on the podcast. “It’s at that point you realize you’ve wandered too much, and it could be Sony tapping them on the shoulder, being like, ‘Hey guys, it’s been three years, not seeing much from you, we’ve spent I don’t know how much money already, what’s going on?”

Russell explained that the studio seemingly learned from its time developing The Last of Us that crunch is what it would take to make the games. “It was just an admission in a [meeting after The Last of Us], ‘Well, we’ve just come to realize this is what it takes to make games at our level,” he said.

“‘If you don’t want to do that, we understand, we’ll write you a great letter of recommendation.’ The company runs the way it wants to run; you either want to be a part of it or you don’t. They’re not technically breaking any laws. It’s not like a requirement. It is a, ‘hey, we really could use your help. Please come here.’ And you’re incentivized to do it because your bonuses will be bigger.”

A report from back in 2020 was one of the bigger ones to bring the company’s culture of crunch into the light. In a report, Jason Schreier—writing for Kotaku at the time—conducted interviews with multiple current and former employees from Naughty Dog on the condition of anonymity, and made note of unhealthy working hours and overtime work still being prevalent.

“This can’t be something that’s continuing over and over for each game, because it is unsustainable,” said one developer working on The Last of Us Part 2. “At a certain point, you realize, ‘I can’t keep doing this. I’m getting older. I can’t stay and work all night.’”

“They do try to take care of you, providing food, encouragement to go take breaks,” said another former Naughty Dog developer. “But for the most part, the implication is: ‘Get the job done at all costs.’”

It is worth noting that reports of Naughty Dog’s employees being forced to crunch are by no means recent. The company also came under fire for this back in 2011, shortly after the release of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, with creative director Amy Hennig talking about how “it was the hardest thing in the industry [I’ve] ever done.” Similarly, cinematics animation lead Josh Scherr said that “it was pretty brutal this time around. I mean, there’s always crunch. There’s always people putting in extra hours. But this time around, just because of the scope and the ambition of the game – even after we had gone back and shortened some things, trimmed some other things – there was just still a lot to do, in the amount of time we had to do it.”

Intergalactic is being developed exclusively for PS5. While it doesn’t yet have a release date, reports indicate that Naughty Dog might be aiming for a mid-2027 launch.

Henderson went on to note that this isn’t the first time that Naughty Dog has “flirted with the idea” of making an Uncharted 5. “I don’t know what they’re trying to do with it or whatever. I know that there was some planning of an Uncharted 5 before COVID.”

Henderson went on to discuss the state of the industry at large, noting that many companies might be aiming for safe bets rather than trying to create an entirely new IP. He brings up Bungie with Marathon as one point of comparison, noting that the studio’s safest bet would be a brand new Destiny game. Similarly, Naughty Dog would likely see new entries in The Last of Us and Uncharted as safe bets.

“I think the issue that we run into now is Uncharted 5 is considered a safe bet, right? And that’s what we’re going to see from a lot of studios. It’s like Bungie with Marathon,” he said. “I think that’s got a long tail on it, and it is probably going to do okay, right? Like, I don’t think it’s going to shut down next week or whatever, but the next safe bet for them is Destiny 3, and the next safe bet for Naughty Dog is obviously The Last of Us Part 3 and Uncharted.”

The Instagram post that sparked the entire discussion included a photo that, while looking like one that could be taken by any tourist visiting a scenic location, had the caption “Research…” under it. While Escayg didn’t reveal any further details on what the research could possibly be about, the general vibes of the photo could fit in quite well with a potential Uncharted 5, since the franchise typically takes players to scenic, beautiful places quite often.

It is worth noting that neither Naughty Dog nor Sony has made any official announcements regarding the franchise, and for all intents and purposes, the former is still focusing purely on Intergalactic’s development.

The last mainline entry in the Uncharted franchise was 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Its story revolves around protagonist Nathan Drake getting pulled into one last major adventure, and deals with many themes, ranging from unresolved trauma from Nathan’s childhood to the responsibility he has for his new family with Elena.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End got a standalone expansion in 2017, dubbed Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The title features Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross as its protagonists, and sees the two investigating the Hoysala Kingdom ruins. It featured a more open-ended structure for its second act, giving players plenty of freedom to tackle obstacles.

For more details, check out our review of the PC release of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which features both titles.

The image shows an old cannon on a wall overlooking a city by the sea. It would come across as a neat vacation photo if Escayg didn’t put the caption, “Research…” Research for what exactly? He didn’t say, but considering how much it lines up with Nathan Drake’s entire profile of gallivanting around, exploring ruins, and even dealing with pirates, what else but Uncharted?

A new title in the series wouldn’t be too surprising at this point. After all, Naughty Dog previously wrote that it has several “ambitious, brand new” single-player titles in the works (that “brand new” seemingly indicating that they’re not remakes). There’s also the rumor that Escayg has been working on an unannounced project for almost four years now, which may be the same that Druckmann is producing.

Could it be something out of left field, like, say, a new Jak and Daxter? Sure, but given that it’s been nearly a decade since Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – not to mention Escayg serving as co-director on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – you’d have to think that Drake is gearing up for a return. Hopefully, we’ll learn more later this year.

In a recent interview with the Lance E. Lee Podcast from Tokyo (transcription via Kotaku), the game’s former director, Vinit Agarwal, spoke out about how its cancellation and the disappointment he felt at learning it was being cancelled, especially after spending so much time on it.

“That was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on that game, and it was soul-crushing. I remember honestly finding out that it was getting cancelled 24 hours before it was announced to the public. That’s how I found out about the game getting cancelled, and it was just unfortunate, and they had to do that because they have to control the messaging.”

Stating that it was “around 80% complete”, he seems to have empathy for Nought Dog’s decision to move in a safer direction with whatever Neil Druckmann was cooking up at the time.

“Basically, at one point, a decision had to be made. ‘Okay, make this game or make the next game that Neil Druckmann was directing, the president of the company…They had to pick the game that was kind of the bread and butter of the studio rather than this experimental game that I was working on that I believe was going to be really big, but unfortunately couldn’t see the light of day.”

Agarwal has since landed on his feet, founding a new studio and working on a title that seems to be making good use of all the lessons he learned during his time working on The Last of Us Online. While details are still under wraps, we’re hoping that those lessons bring some familiar elements, and perhaps even a dash of familiarity for what could have been.

This project would revolve around a man and a girl traveling through a broken America—essentially the plot of the original The Last of Us. What makes his post interesting is a mention of “the few stops that remain on the road ahead.”

“Cleaning out the garage today and stumbled on my original sketches from 2003 for a game pitch about a man, his surrogate daughter, and a trek across a broken America,” he wrote. “Been a wild journey. Grateful for every part of it, especially the few stops that remain on the road ahead.”

It is worth noting that the concept art itself doesn’t really mean much anymore, especially since the design behind The Last of Us protagonists Joel and Ellie would see massive changes since 2003, thanks in large part to the advancements in console hardware made at the time. As for the franchise’s future, while Druckmann could simply be referring to the 2027-bound third season of HBO’s The Last of Us, the fact that he used the plural “few stops” indicates that there might be even more in the works.

While he has largely been quiet about the idea of a third The Last of Us game, Druckmann had revealed back in February 2024 that he had some ideas for a third part already in mind. At the time, he noted that he only had “a concept” for it, however, and didn’t have a full story that would fit that concept. Discussing the ending of the first two games, he questioned whether there was potential for more.

“If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point. That last bite of the apple, the story’s done,” he said. “The great thing about working at Naughty Dog is that we don’t have to. So it’s always like, we would love another Last of Us, but if you guys are passionate about something else, we’ll support this other thing. Very privileged position to be in. I never take that for granted.”

“I’ve been thinking about, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for now years, I haven’t been able to find that concept- but recently that’s changed. I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept, that, to me, is as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”

More recently, Druckmann has been busy with Naughty Dog’s next major game—Intergalactic. While few concrete details about it have been revealed since its original announcement, Druckmann recently teased that we might see an actor from The Last of Us returning in the sci-fi game.

In his post, Howe said that he was in charge of creating a shot-for-shot recreation of one of the game’s early cutscenes as part of the pitch to show Sony what it would look like. He has also made it clear that the cutscene’s recreation was not commissioned by Sony, and the PlayStation maker had no involvement in the proposal. Further in the comments for his post, Howe also credits Sanzaru Games senior character artist Tyler Bronis for his work on the animated short.

“A long while back, a team was assembled to pitch a remaster of Jak & Daxter. I was asked to animate an IGC shot-for-shot, to show what this updated version would look like,” wrote Howe. “To be abundantly clear: this was NOT commissioned by Sony, nor did they have any involvement in our proposal — this was essentially a fan pitch to try and gain their permission.”

The cutscene’s recreation is quite an impressive one, seemingly making use of modern technologies to render things like the fur on Daxter’s body, and more modern implementations of things like particle effects, which were much harder to render on the original’s PS2 hardware.

In his own post about the project, Bronis revealed that the pitch was worked on back in 2019. His own involvement at the time revolved around remaking Jak’s model, along with environment art and lighting, and the camera work and editing.

The video has seen a positive response, with former Naughty Dog writer and narrative designer Josh Scherr commenting about how well it was pulled off. Scherr had worked on the Jak and Daxter games, and was an animator on this scene in particular.

“This is wild – I was the animator on the original scene way back in 2001,” wrote Scherr. “Y’all did a great job! On the original game each cinematics animator had to churn out 30 seconds of animation per week, so it’s nice to see it looking more polished.”

Currently, the Jak and Daxter series is essentially missing. The last time we got any official word on the franchise was back in 2021, with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells confirming that a new Jak and Daxter game was not in the works. In a discussion with Insomniac’s Ted Price, Wells was asked whether Naughty Dog still gets requests for a new entry in the franchise.

“We do, in fact,” he replied. “We’ve had a couple of Twitter campaigns where people have been tweeting us every single day [saying] ‘I want a new Jak and Daxter, I want a new Jak and Daxter’, and they aren’t just simple 280-character tweets, they have Photoshopped memes and everything they’re including on a daily basis, and the effort has got to be significant.”

“And I hate to break it to them, [but] we do not have Jak and Daxter here in development right now.”

Dandridge has worked with Naughty Dog on many projects after she first played the role of Marlene in the original 2013 release of The Last of Us. We saw her reprising the role in The Last of Us Part 2, as well as HBO’s live-action adaptation. Outside of Naughty Dog’s projects, Dandridge has also worked on other major games, including the role of Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2 and its two episodic sequels.

Reports have indicated that Naughty Dog is quite far along in development, with one indicating that the company might be aiming to release the game in mid-2027. However, another report from December alleged that the project demanded weeks of mandatory overtime thanks to “several missed deadlines”. This overtime was reportedly an effort by Naughty Dog to “get the production back on track”, with “some teams” also having put in “long hours” to complete the game’s debut trailer.

Actor Tony Dalton, known for roles like Lalo Salamanca in Better Call Saul and Jack Duquesne in MCU projects, has also been confirmed to be playing a role in Intergalactic. In an interview from January, he discussed working with Druckmann on HBO’s The Last of Us, and how the two became friends, leading to his role in Intergalactic. Describing the process itself, Dalton said that portraying a video game character was “like nothing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“It’s crazy. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done in my life. These guys are top of the line. You put on these skin-tight suits with dots all over the place–all over your face and everything. They have a whole set. Huge, huge set. It’s amazing,” Dalton said.

Voice actor Troy Baker has also previously spoken about working on Druckmann, and revealed that they often butt heads with each other because of how passionate both of them are.

“We did two weeks ago, man. Neil and I will always, it’s our vibe,” said Baker in November. “We just love to butt up against each other. We were doing a table read, and I was literally like, ‘Why are you giving me s*** right now? I’m asking you a question!’ And everybody else is like, ‘Our mom and dad are fighting, are we still going to Disneyland?’ We’re fine. We’re fine!”

Intergalactic is being developed for PS5. Druckmann has referred to the project as being the “most ambitious,” “most expansive,” and “most expensive” Naughty Dog game yet. “We’re making it, we’re playing it. We’re firing on all cylinders. I’ve said this before, but I really mean it, I’m really feeling it right now: It’s the most ambitious game we’ve ever made. It’s the most expansive game we’ve ever made, maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it.”

Upon being asked if the upcoming season was going to be the last one for the series, Bloys hinted that “it certainly seemed that way,” but injected a bit of mystery by passing the buck on to the series’s showrunners. “On decisions like that, we will defer to the showrunners. So you can ask them.”

While the show’s second season focused on the first half of The Last of Us 2’s narrative, the third season will bring Abby to the center stage, focusing on her single-minded efforts to avenge her father.

No spoilers, but those of you who played the game already know how things pan out on that front. As for everyone else, they might be glad to know that you’re close to the curtain call on a live-action adaptation that has largely managed to capture the essence of its video game counterpart. Just don’t expect it to release anytime this year.

In an interview with Culture Wave Media, Dalton discussed having worked with director Neil Druckmann on The Last of Us adaptation, where he played Joel’s father, and how the latter expressed interest in continuing to work with the actor. This resulted in Dalton’s role in Intergalactic, which also happens to be the first time he will be in a game.

Describing the process, Dalton said it was “like nothing I’ve ever done in my life,” pointing out all the advanced technology used to capture his likeness and mannerisms through motion capture suits.

“It’s crazy. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done in my life. These guys are top of the line. You put on these skin-tight suits with dots all over the place–all over your face and everything. They have a whole set. Huge, huge set. It’s amazing,” Dalton said.

While what character Dalton will be portraying in Intergalactic is currently unknown, in the interview, he noted that Druckmann’s pitch referred to his character as being “one of the leads”. On working with Druckmann, Dalton said that he is “the sweetest guy in the world. He’s great.”

Voice actor Troy Baker had also previously spoken about working with Druckmann, and how the two often butt heads with each other because of the passion they feel for the project.

“We did two weeks ago, man. Neil and I will always, it’s our vibe,” said Baker in November. “We just love to butt up against each other. We were doing a table read, and I was literally like, ‘Why are you giving me s*** right now? I’m asking you a question!’ And everybody else is like, ‘Our mom and dad are fighting, are we still going to Disneyland?’ We’re fine. We’re fine!”

Little has been revealed about Intergalactic since it was first unveiled all the way back in 2024. Druckmann has, however, described it as being the studio’s “most ambitious” project so far.

“We’re making it, we’re playing it. We’re firing on all cylinders. I’ve said this before, but I really mean it, I’m really feeling it right now: It’s the most ambitious game we’ve ever made. It’s the most expansive game we’ve ever made, maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it.”

While the studio has been largely quiet, reports have indicated it may be falling behind schedule. One noted that the development team has been working eight more hours each week since October. This overtime work is because the project has “several missed deadlines”, and the team is trying to “get the production back on track”.

A more recent report has indicated that Naughty Dog might be aiming for a mid-2027 release for Intergalactic on PS5.