It’s probably the worst kept secret in the industry at the moment, but Sony has a new first-party team based in San Diego, and it’s expected to be working on the Uncharted franchise. As a reminder that the studio continues to recruit talent, Naughty Dog environment artist Zak Oliver – who most recently worked on The Last of Us: Part II – has joined the team.
Oliver made the transition to the Visual Arts Studio Group last month, presumably having completed his work on Ellie’s sophomore adventure. He’ll serve as Senior Environment Artist on an unannounced project, which many expect to be some kind of Uncharted sequel or spin-off. While the VASG division is primarily responsible for motion capture, the Japanese giant has been building a development studio off it.
“PlayStation Visual Arts has a new game development team in partnership with a major Sony studio,” said PlayStation talent acquisition lead Fiona Cherbak in a Twitter post a couple of years back. It’s been staffing up pretty hard ever since, and we’d expect it to have something to show within the next 18 months or so – presumably for PlayStation 5.
[source linkedin.com, via psu.com]
Comments (53)
I would like to see an Uncharted game much more about exploration this time.
Strange why Sony hasn't announced it's new studio.
@snowstorm2574 They'll announce the studio alongside the game I suppose.
"It’s been staffing up pretty hard ever since, and we’d expect it to have something to show within the next 18 months or so – presumably for PlayStation 5" Oh ya think! Nah I figured they would be working on a PS3 game.........
@AdamNovice Yeah I'd like to see them take it in a different direction slightly. I'd be down for an Elena/Cassie photojournalism-type campaign.
Either that or Sully in the 80s.
@Mafia_Man19 You never know!
@get2sammyb I think Bruce Straley is the head of this Studio or another one Sony has been cooking up.
@AdamNovice Yeah, that's always my favourite bit of the Uncharted games, so I hope so too.
Nate gets killed off in the opening half hour and for the rest of the game you play as Sam in a gay relationship with Sully.
@David187 Hes a freelancer now though
@ApostateMage
It's the Apostate! Kill him! xD Oh man, I Iaughed so hard at your comment. Thanks for that!
Did Amy Hennig ever find more work after her EA star wars thing bit the dust?
@ApostateMage
You forgot to say he was killed with a spoon in front of Elena. 🤨
When Sony officially announce this new studio I hope they also announce that they brought housemarque.I think they should get them before some othe company do.
@IonMagus I know he helped out on one game a while ago just have a hunch time will tell I guess.
@get2sammyb a “young Sully” set of games would work for me; keeps it linked to the main uncharted brand but can go down an entirely different road and style
With a name like "Visual Arts Studio Group", are we even sure that they're going to be focused solely on games? The name seems to encompass much more.
Sounds great, I just hope it's a sequel and not a prequel. And as amazing as TLOU2 was, I'm hoping for something a little more light hearted here, less.. depressing.
@ApostateMage
🅱🆄🅰🅷🅰🅷🅰🅷🅰🅷🅰🅰🅷🅰🅷🅰 !
The next one has to be an open-world Uncharted.
If they are working on an Uncharted game, I hope it's either a direct sequel to UC4 where you play as Nathan with his daughter, like a Last of Us 1 dynamic, or I would like a Sam and Sully duo like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
PlayStation Visual Arts, do you think PVA will stick?
@JJ2 Gaunter O'Dimm style.
If they're doing a new Uncharted I really, really hope they leave Nate alone, we got a perfect ending to his story. My ideal successor would have a brand new protagonist that occasionally crosses paths with Sam and Sully.
@ApostateMage 🙄
They're actually working on a sequel to the Uncharted spin off, whereby a skinny, underwhelming gay man kills the main female protagonist in the good name of equality and social justice. ⚖️
How many studios do Sony have now with this and insomniac?
@nookie_egg Yes. She is heading the creation of a new studio for skydance media aimed at story driven experiences in streaming media.
So umm... she might be making CG movies or something.
A waste, but that is what the gaming industry does.
A sequel with cassie or a entire new cast, as long as is not a prequel which in my opinion are a complete waste of time.
Im done with Uncharted so Lets hope we see something else.
@AdamNovice As long as it's not open world.
Some days I come here and check out the comments and, for a moment, think I've ended up on IGN.
My best guess on the next Uncharted game story: Elena leaves the house and tells Nate that she's going on a vacation with their daughter. They end up in another treasure-hunting adventure and Shoreline mercenaries will take them hostage. They call Nate and he sets off for a new adventure to save his family.
@Dodoo According to Wikipedia (sorry for not using a better source), there are currently thirteen studios including Insomniac, and with this unnamed new studio, there would be fourteen.
The American-based ones are Bend Studio, Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Pixelopus, San Diego Studio, San Mateo Studio, Santa Monica Studio, Sucker Punch Productions, and this new one.
The European-based are Guerrilla Games, London Studio and Media Molecule.
Finally, the Japanese-based are Japan Studio and Polyphony Digital.
There are also ICE Team and XDev, but for the purposes of that article they are not considered studios, but divisions of another nature. The first one, apparently, is a Naughty Dog's team (more precisely, a technology group). The second seems like a support team that collaborates with other studios in order to support them in their own projects.
P.D. Either way, if someone finds a better source and wants to expand/correct the information, please do so.
Is there really an appetite for more Uncharted? I played the last one and the more recent Tomb Raider and honestly, I think these games have had their time in the sun.
I could handle another Uncharted game, as long as Neil Druckmann is not allowed to be anywhere near it
Calling dibs on Uncharted: A Telltale Series...
@DotM Totally agree 100%
Oh great! Another movie game! Do something new.
I love Uncharted but Neil Drunkman will make it a political drama rather than a great story
Naughty Dog has a hell of a lot of talent. Unfortunately they also have Neil Druckmann in charge so ...
@ApostateMage Pray neil druckman isn't reading this.
@Armnd thank you for your informative and thorough info. Much appreciated!
@L3GTRIGA
I hope Druckmann is involved personally (not that he would be given its a new studio) , the games he has directed have been better than any of the studio's previous titles, which is quite the feat given how good the previous Naughty Dog games have been.
I am something of an Uncharted fanatic, but when you compare the stories of the early games with what Druckmann directed in 4, there is no comparison as far as I am concerned. No relying on silly 'monsters' and supernatural mumbo-jumbo, number 4 had a much more mature, detailed and grounded feel.
They are all games that I adore, but this false narrative that Druckmann is somehow responsible for a downturn in quality is nonsense.
@L3GTRIGA Right, that does it. Your now banned from my future fantastic Druckmann productions
Something tells me this studio will focus on VR games
A Sully based game in the 80s would be awesome. I think they could do some great things. Would like it to be more sand box style like lost legacy but I feel like it still needs set pieces to be an Uncharted game
Would be weird having an uncharted game without ND being the studio working on it. But I'm definitely down for some more uncharted games, one with Sam and sully would be my dream uncharted game. Even a younger sully could be pretty cool we see him in uncharted 3 during the cutscenes when Nathan was younger more stuff before that would be interesting. You could even do a younger Nathan but that's what the uncharted film is already doing
@Lovespuds I agree with your "more mature" point but Amy's take of Sam being villain turned brother would have been better than brother from start plus Nathan is not Drake was not needed...just my opinion
To me the name implies it's a support studio for other developers (which would be a reasonable thing for Sony to do). Either way we'll find out most likely next year. Perhaps they are making a game as a proving ground for their abilities, trial by fire so to speak (Sony did let Mr Cerny do two Knack games after all). They have a lot of talented people working there now so whatever they're cooking it should be good and it seems like it will be done for the PS5 from the ground up.
No way another Uncharted has a straight white male as the lead. SJW's love to peddle the lie that nearly all leads are straight white males but this is only true if you look at all films/tv/video games since their inception, in the case of films from over 100 years ago. From 2010 onwards straight white male leads have become far less common in order to accommodate woke culture and over-represent the rage mobs who will still find a way to twist and poison everything into something that's offensive to someone. If Uncharted 1 was released today there'd be outrage over a straight white male as the lead, over the game not having gay/bi/trans/black characters all over the place, imperialism and colonialism and whatever else they can find.
First Malaysia Studio, now San Diego. I'm really excited for what's to come.
@AdamNovice Absolutely. This is why I enjoyed Lost Legacy way more than UC4 in my opinion. Also, if it's gonna have multiplayer, I want it to be like Uncharted 2's. I miss playing UC2's co-op mode. Also, please no microtransactions lol Just make everything unlockable through progression.
Tap here to load 53 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...