Naughty Dog’s Bruce Straley has said that the developer doesn’t particularly find it strange to end popular video game franchises unlike what seems to be a norm in the industry. In a new interview with Huffington Post, Straley said that studio could continue to sell Uncharted games but chooses not to rehash “something where you’re struggling to find a new voice or story.”
It’s been brought up before that this [Uncharted] is the first franchise that’s willingly offed itself. We could probably keep selling and churn out a five, six or seven down the road.
But it’s not strange to us at Naughty Dog. We decided not to do anymore Crash Bandicoot after “Crash Team Racing” rather than rehashing something where you’re struggling to find a new voice or story.
Video games are the only industry where every single time someone picks up a joystick, they expect something familiar but it has to be something new. It has to have new mechanics.
With reference to Uncharted‘s protagonist, Nathan Drake, Straley said that if the character was evolved and given something like a jetpack, for example, it would change who he is and would restrict the developer. He believes that at the end of the day, it’s best to see what else is out there.
Elsewhere in the interview, Straley was asked if Naughty Dog was concerned about changing trends in the industry, whilst developing Uncharted 4, whereby players are demanding more diverse characters. He said that since Uncharted‘s story and world has already been set up in previous games, it wouldn’t make sense to make drastic changes at this point. “We can’t suddenly make Nathan Drake a black protagonist, as much as it’d be super great to support something like that,” he said.
Following another delay, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 4 on May 10.
[Source: Huffington Post]
