14 DAY TRIAL // Naughty Dog isn't ruling out projects like the Uncharted Remastered collection for PS4 or new titles in the Jak and Daxter or Crash Bandicoot franchises.
Naughty Dog has a long and rich history, bringing forth a huge amount of successful series to different platforms, almost all of them in the PlayStation family.
Right now, the studio is working on The Last of Us Remastered for the PS4, which is out next week, and is also deep in the development of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
However, Naughty Dog Community Strategist Arne Meyer doesn't rule out the chance of seeing other projects, such as a new Jak and Daxter game or a new Crash Bandicoot title in the future.
While talking with IGN, Meyer has emphasized that there's still desire in the studio to create such titles but it wouldn't be the best use of the company's resources.
"It’s never off the table," he explains. "It’s not too much time passing, but it’s the same issues we explored with the Jak game. Is it something that makes sense to us now. I mean we still have people that worked on the Crash games in the studio. We never forget our past and it’d be great for nostalgic reasons. It’d be the same reason as why there isn’t a Jak 4: I don’t know if it’s playing to our strengths right now."
According to Meyer, Naughty Dog is currently skilled in creating realistic story-driven games with strong characters, like with The Last of Us and Joel and Ellie, or Uncharted with Nathan Drake.
"Right now, what’s exciting everyone at the studio is continuing to work on narrative-driven games with strong characters. I think, at least for the time being, we haven’t exhausted the possibilities there, but that could change with something as simple as hardware. That’s what drove it before. I think we’re on to something really good though creating character-driven stories so that’s where our focus is going to be."
Such a focus doesn't work well with stylized experiences like Jak and Daxter or Crash Bandicoot, but this doesn't mean that things won't change in the future.
Meyer once again touches on the possibility of seeing the Uncharted games transition from the PS3 to the PS4 in the form of a remastered collection.
"It’d be nice," he mentions about that idea. "It’s always nice to find ways to try and expand your audience. I don’t know how we’d ever pull that off but I don’t want to say we wouldn’t do it. I think if everything aligns, we should make an attempt to look into it and do it as well."
Right now, Naughty Dog and Sony are keeping their cards close to their chests, so it's unclear on what other project the studio will work after it releases The Last of Us Remastered on PS4.