Naughty Dog is reportedly prioritising a new Uncharted game before any new The Last Of Us projects, according to multiple sources. Details on Nathan Drake’s inclusion remain unclear.
New sequel confirmed by sources
MP1st was the first to report that a new Uncharted game is in development, describing it as a brand new sequel and not a remake. The project is said to be the same one that Uncharted: The Lost Legacy director Shaun Escayg was rumoured to be spearheading last year. At the time, it wasn’t exactly clear what the project was, but Escayg’s prior experience and one cryptic Instagram post caused many to assume it was Uncharted related.
MP1st stresses that series protagonist Nathan Drake will return, but couldn’t say whether he’ll be the lead protagonist or in a supporting role. Nathan claimed to be retiring from adventuring at the end of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, with the implication that his daughter would take over the family business, creating a clear set-up for any future games.
Corroboration and context
VGC has also corroborated the report, although it couldn’t provide any further information. Additionally, video game insider NateTheHate agrees that the game is being helmed by Escayg, although he doesn’t know anything about Naughty Dog’s plans for The Last Of Us.
Just a couple of days ago, Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann announced that two new The Last Of Us projects are in the pipeline, although all he said was that they’ll ‘expand the canon… beyond Part 1 and Part 2.’ The assumption was that these would be the priority following the launch of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog’s next wholly original game for the PlayStation 5 – which still lacks a release date but is broadly expected to be released next year.
Impact on release timeline
If this new Uncharted is Naughty Dog’s priority after Intergalactic, this only means those Last Of Us projects are even further away than expected. MP1st also claims that one of them is indeed The Last Of Us Part 3 and that it will be the next game after Uncharted 5. It’s not clear, though, how far along in development Uncharted 5 is, so there’s no telling how long of a gap there’ll be between each game.
Any new Last Of Us sequel certainly isn’t going to be for another 10 years if Naughty Dog is already busy with two major video games. That’s assuming this Uncharted sequel is a proper big budget entry and not something with a smaller scope and shorter run time, akin to The Lost Legacy or Insomniac’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales game. Intergalactic’s not releasing until 2027 at the absolute earliest and with the PlayStation 6 rumoured to be launching next year, the new Uncharted must at least be a cross gen game, for the new console and the PlayStation 5.
