Naughty Dog presidents Evan Wells and Neil Druckmann were recently interviewed by Game Informer on a broad variety of topics, including whether the acclaimed studio is going to focus on sequels to existing franchises or new IPs. According to Wells, it’ll be both.
Evan Wells: I think the easy answer is: both. I think there’s excitement to develop new IP, but there is still a ton of love for Uncharted and The Last of Us, and I think you’ll see both kinds of projects from us in the future.
If you were hoping that Naughty Dog would ever go back to making kid-friendly games like it used to with Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter, though, the evasive answers provided by Wells and Druckmann aren’t exactly promising.
Evan Wells: If we had endless resources and time it would be super fun to do that. You look at what Insomniac is doing with Ratchet and Clank and it’s exciting. It’s great to see that stuff. We’re just limited with time, you know, I’m 48 years-old and how many more games do you get to make, so you got to pick and choose.
Neil Druckmann: Once we finish a project, we spend quite a bit of time entertaining all sorts of different directions, whether it’s going to be something new or if we’re going back to some old franchise. We really take our time with it, and if you were to see our folders of concept art you’d see unused concepts that are all over the gamut. Then we look at everything and we ask ourselves what are we excited by? What’s something that’s going to challenge and push Naughty Dog, and push the medium as far as games that can be? Because that inspiration is so important to carry through years of production.
In other Naughty Dog news, the studio is still hiring for the studio’s ‘first standalone multiplayer game’. This should be the project spun off The Last of Us Part II: Factions, which Neil Druckmann promised last year would be worth the wait.
Naughty Dog is hiring across multiple disciplines for the studio’s first standalone multiplayer game! Visit https://t.co/xUYV9m8PJF to learn more! pic.twitter.com/ub9hg433po
— Naughty Dog Jobs (@NaughtyDogJobs) August 27, 2021
