Naughty Dog is one of the most revered studios in gaming, and over the years has become one of the few developers that has built up enough of a positive rapport with gamers to make every upcoming game, regardless of subject, instantly one of the most anticipated of its respective year. The California-based company is currently wrapped up in the upcoming multiplayer game The Last of Us: Factions, and all signs point to it being occupied on the project for a while. While the zombie-adjacent property is at the center of Naughty Dog's efforts today, this wasn't always the case. Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and even older games like Way of the Warrior all make for Naughty Dog's previous works. One stands tallest however as, to many, Uncharted can do no wrong.
It began as a trilogy of games released two years apart from one another on the PlayStation 3, and though 2007's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was a flawed, but charming first attempt, the subsequent games were something special. With Uncharted, Naughty Dog went from a well-liked studio that made charming cartoonish platformers to one of the titans of AAA gaming. It's an important series for Sony, and it deserves to either be left alone entirely as it departed on a huge high or to be passed onto another developer with experience in the genre, if Naughty Dog intends to abandon Uncharted. The 2022 film missed the mark, and this shouldn't provoke Sony to run it into the ground or give it to a different developer, which is exactly what happened to Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot.
Uncharted is the Gold Standard of Action Gaming
Though Indiana Jones dominated the archeological action genre on the big screen and Lara Croft held it down in gaming for well over a decade, Nathan Drake pinched the crown in 2007 by swinging onto the PlayStation and winning the hearts of fans. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves improved upon its predecessor in almost every way with a globe-trotting journey taking Nate and company to the cold peaks of the Himalayas. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception had a lot to live up to, and some consider it a step backward, but it set the standard once again by fine-tuning the presentation and injecting the characters with much more life and flaws.
Alongside Mass Effect and BioShock, Uncharted is one of the best trilogies in gaming, so it was a significant risk when Naughty Dog kicked off the PlayStation 4's life cycle with a fourth game, this time without series writer Amy Hennig. The hesitation was not warranted, though, as Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a visual, mechanical, and presentational marvel, and gives Drake the resolution he deserved, and few thought he would actually get. Returning to the series now that Drake's story is surely over would be the biggest risk the franchise has been subject to, so should Uncharted 5 happen it simply has to stick the landing, and can't be another example of a Naughty Dog series that should have ended one game sooner.
Naughty Dog's Franchises are Often Pushed to the Wayside
Ready at Dawn developed Daxter, the PSP installment of the much-loved Jak and Daxter series while Naughty Dog worked on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Crash Bandicoot 4 was handled by Toys for Bob. The properties began by Naughty Dog never seem to end that way, and though Uncharted received a PS Vita entry courtesy of Bend, Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy brought the series back to the developer that spawned it. Rumors are aplenty that Uncharted is set to be rebooted without Naughty Dog's input, and this is valiant, but it's also concerning as it's abundantly clear that its original creator is in the best position to make any future games in the series great.
One could argue that Uncharted is better off burning than fading away, and Naughty Dog's offerings always tend to burn brighter than all else in the linear, single-player space. However, they typically leave either with a whimper or with a release that isn't developed by Naughty Dog at all. The Last of Us' future is still far from being clear, but the recent rumors surrounding Uncharted are concerning, as the franchise is too beloved to be hastily given away. It has all the potential in the world, but it can only be realized if it is handled with care, and other Naughty Dog IPs weren't given the privilege by the company itself.