Is Naughty Dog taking it easy?

[ThunderBoy]

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

I suppose? Normally the games that they do takes years and lots of money to make.

 

[dkpopman]

It's frustrating, but not surprising. Making games continues to get more and more complicated and time consuming. Jason Schrier made a video recently that really does a good job at illustrating why this is the case, and why budgets seem to keep ballooning to cartoonish levels. I'd suggest giving it a watch.

In Naughty Dogs case, you also have to consider there was an entire Last of Us multi-player title that got canned a few years ago. Because of that, years of valuable time and labor were effectively flushed down the toilet. Now they have their newest game Intergalactic which apparantly started development in 2020, but you can imagine that the team was likely split up until the cancelation of the multi-player project near the end of 2023. So who knows how much longer the new game will take... It's been ~6 years now, but maybe it'll take closer to 8 years because of this situation.

I am not enough of a doomer/boomer to say the industry is in shambles. Incredible games keep coming out every year, even from AAA. However, it's very clear that the standards make it hard for these games to hit market at the speed they used to.

 

[Lokgamer]

Of course it's. There are plenty of games coming, like about three remakes of the last of us.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Yeah, but they have enough money in the bank to get picky with projects to put forth — a privileged afforded to less and less studios these days.

 

[dkpopman]

Yeah, but they have enough money in the bank to get picky with projects to put forth — a privileged afforded to less and less studios these days.

Yeah, they would never close their doors because of their current situation.

Unless they got bought by Microsoft. Lol.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

Well, considering that the creative director (of 'Uncharted') Amy Hennig left 2014, a bunch of layoffs around 2023~24, and then ('The Last of Us' lead/director) Vinit Agarwal leaving last year; it would be a miracle if they'll ever get anything done anytime soon..

 

[iamthemilkman]

I miss the days when we'd get 3 Uncharted games and TLOU in one console generation.

The graphics race is making AAA development entirely unsustainable. The number of copies that you have to sell through to turn a profit is astronomical nowadays. These games take upwards of 10 years to make, the developers are all located in the most expensive cities in America so salaries are much higher, thus the games cost anywhere from 200M-400M to make. Additionally, next-gen consoles are projected to cost upwards of $1K, if not more, so console adoption will be much lower, meaning exclusives will have a very difficult time making back their money. This industry's in deep shit.

 

[CheesyExplosive]

so that's the reason why i only like jak&crash.... too bad spyro is not in here.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

so that's the reason why i only like jak&crash.... too bad spyro is not in here.

Spyro was developed by Insomniac Games initially

 

[JellyjamLu]

Very talented developers but the magic/Midas golden touch era is gone.
They could even potentially take as long as GTA 6's dev cycle and yet i'm betting all of my pogs it will never be as memorable or reach similar heights as the old classics. I'd say the peak was TLOU then immediately dropped off thereafter.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

the developers are all located in the most expensive cities in America

My friend (a software engineer) was offered to move to Montreal for a spot in the industry at a "competitive rate" at a much cheaper place to work in — looks like a smart move, but it's been ages since I last heard about a game being made there, so perhaps that's no longer the case?

Whatever the case, you have got a good point there.

 

[Vexicrypt]

Since their TLOU multiplayer game got cancelled, I guess they are working on Intergalactic and just didn't have anything worth showing on this year's Summer Game Fest

 

[Elwiwi]

2020 ? Naughty dog didn't release anything on that year

 

[CheesyExplosive]

Spyro was developed by Insomniac Games initially

yeah..... Fuck.