Uncharted: Don't Expect Naughty Dog To Make Another Entry, Though A Different Studio Could

Naughty Dog has made no secret about how it plans to move on from the Uncharted series after this year's standalone game, The Lost Legacy. Now, co-president Evan Wells has doubled down on that stance, telling Game Informer that he does not foresee Naughty Dog ever making another entry in the series, though this is not written in stone.

"I would say that Naughty Dog doing an Uncharted after this is unlikely," he explained. "I would never say never, but we've got The Last of Us Part II on our plates and there's so much other stuff that [we want to explore]. It'd be hard. If we magically had that two-team, three-team studio, sure--it'd be great to keep doing it. We really love the franchise, but the studio has limited resources and lots of other ideas. I'd say the likelihood is low."

The Uncharted series, which debuted in 2007 and has spanned four mainline games, sold more than 20 million copies before Uncharted 4's release last year. That game, the final one to feature Nathan Drake, sold close to 9 million units by Sony's latest count, so there definitely appears to be a business opportunity for more games in the series. The franchise is owned by Sony, so it's possible the company could put a different studio to work on a fifth mainline Uncharted game.

It wouldn't be the first time the creator of a high-profile series moved on to a different franchise with the original property continuing at a different team.

In April last year, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said he'd be happy for another studio to take over, but only if they were able to nail the "essence" of Uncharted.

Outside studios have already worked on the Uncharted series. The Uncharted PlayStation Vita spinoff, Golden Abyss, was developed by Sony Bend, while Bluepoint Games worked on Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.

Naughty Dog's The Last of Us II was announced in December 2016 and does not yet have a release date. As for Wells' comment on the "so much stuff" that Naughty Dog wants to explore, this could be a reference to new IP.

Outside of games, movies based on Uncharted and The Last of Us are in the works.