Naughty Dog has admitted that it hasn’t been able to become a multi-project development studio and although it has multiple ongoing projects, only one of them is getting “the lion’s share of focus at any time.”
Speaking during the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science’s Game Maker’s Notebook series (transcript via Video Games Chronicle), co-president Evan Wells recalled abandoning a PSP version of Jak & Daxter in favor of The Last of Us.
“The amount of effort that was required to finish Uncharted 3 at the time was stealing resources away from The Last of Us, and we never got to the point where we had two full productions going,” he added. “I would say even today we’re just short of that. We definitely have multiple projects, but only one that is getting the lion’s share of focus at any time.”
Wells went on to reveal that some of Naughty Dog’s projects are in pre-production while others are just making it out of pre-production.
“We don’t have two projects that have several hundred people on them,” he continued. “We have one [project] and then some that are in pre-production, or maybe just creeping out of pre-production, but will have to wait until the main focus has completed before we move everybody off of that project.”
Wells separately suggested that Naughty Dog isn’t too keen on making another Uncharted. According to him, despite the franchise’s success, the team wouldn’t have the kind of “creative spark” that it once did when it comes to making another game in the series.
[Source: VGC]
