Naughty Dog Says It Has No New Jak & Daxter Games Planned

Before it became one of Sony's biggest first-party studios of the modern era with The Last of Us and the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog continued to establish itself in the early 2000s with the Jak & Daxter series of platforming adventure games. Dormant since 2009, no new Jak & Daxter games are currently in development, but the property is still a beloved part of Naughty Dog's history that it wishes it could revisit.

At the recent Academy of Interactive Arts & Science's Game Maker's Notebook series, co-president of Naughty Dog Evan Wells was asked by Insomniac's Ted Price if the studio still receives requests from fans to create a new Jak & Daxter game.

"We do, in fact," Wells replied (as transcribed by VGC) at the event. "We've had a couple of Twitter campaigns where people have been tweeting us every single day [saying] 'I want a new Jak & Daxter, I want a new Jak & 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."

Wells said that while the studio still has a lot of love for the franchise, there are currently no new plans to continue the series.

"I hate to break it to them, but we do not have Jak & Daxter here in development right now. But we still love the characters and I see what you guys [at Insomniac] are doing with Ratchet and that makes me wish that we did, and we would have one in development, because there's still a lot of love for Jak & Daxter in the studio."

Jak & Daxter originally released on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and was quickly followed by Jak II in 2003, Jak 3 in 2004, and the obligatory racing game spin-off at the time, Jak X: Combat Racing in 2005. The franchise's last appearance on a Sony platform was the 2009 PlayStation Portable game Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier that Naughty Dog had begun developing but eventually canceled, leaving developer High Impact Games to finish the project.

While a Jak & Daxter revival looks unlikely, retro fans can still look forward to Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart later this year. Developed once again by Insomniac Games, the latest adventure starring the iconic duo will be released on June 11 for the PlayStation 5.

If you'd prefer something classic and accessible right now, 2016's Ratchet & Clank is available on PS4 and PS5. If you managed to grab it for free as part of Sony's Play at Home campaign, you can also play a visually upgraded version of the game which happens to be a remake of the classic platformer.