14 DAY TRIAL // At the moment, Naughty Dog is still focused on the launch of the Remastered PlayStation 4 version of The Last of Us, but arguably a bigger long-term challenge for the company is to launch Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, a title that is designed natively for the next-gen console from Sony rather than being ported from the PS3.
The game was only recently officially revealed to the public, but its development process can be seen as troubled because original director Amy Henning decided to leave the studio in order to explore other opportunities.
Arne Meyer, a community manager at Naughty Dog, tells Eurogamer that new team leaders Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley are well suited to create Uncharted 4 because of their previous experience.
He states, “The dynamic hasn't really changed - Bruce and Neil were intimately involved with Uncharted 2, so they're really familiar with the characters and narrative universe.”
Meyer adds, “Obviously we've had to make some changes to accommodate what's happened at the studio with people leaving, but that always happens. I don't think there are two better people to step in, because they've been so invested in that universe before. It's different, but it's still the same people - we trust them intimately.”
Hennig is now employed by Visceral Games, where she is lending her narrative expertise to the development of a new Star Wars video game, something that she says she wanted to do during her entire career.
Meanwhile, Naughty Dog has offered limited information about Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which is supposed to arrive on the PlayStation 4 at some point in 2015.
We know that the story will once again focus on Nathan Drake, who claims he is no longer a fortune hunter but is still willing to travel around the world in order to unravel a deep conspiracy linked to a huge pirate treasure.
Naughty Dog says the new adventure will test the character’s physical limits and his mental strength as he makes sacrifices to save the ones he loves.
So far, no other characters have been confirmed for Uncharted 4, and the development team says that it plans to use the familiar mechanics of the series, but that some cool innovations, mostly linked to the power of the PlayStation 4, will also be introduced.
Naughty Dog says that this is the last title in the current story arc of the series.