According to a report from Bloomberg, development has begun on a brand-new Uncharted sequel, though Naughty Dog is only on board to supervise. Uncharted rumors are nothing new at this point; such speculation first cropped up a couple of years ago following ongoing reports about PlayStation's not-so-secret San Diego-based studio, a team that has yet to formally receive acknowledgment from Sony.
Uncharted's fourth mainline entry, A Thief's End, hit PlayStation 4 in May of 2016, effectively ending Nathan Drake's character arc. Drake, Elena, and the rest of the gang got their happily ever after, evidenced by Uncharted 4's stunning prologue sequence that put a neat bow on the whole action-packed saga. Naughty Dog followed up the epic conclusion with The Lost Legacy - a standalone that followed Chloe Frazer's and Nadine Ross' adventures across India. Now there's even more reason to believe the world of Uncharted will receive further expansion.
A new Bloomberg report claims SIE Bend Studio, the Oregon-based crew behind Syphon Filter and Days Gone, unsuccessfully pitched a Days Gone follow-up. On the heels of the proposal's alleged failure, one team within the studio received an assignment to assist Naughty Dog on a multiplayer project, likely TLoU's Factions. Another group of Bend Studio developers were shuffled onto an Uncharted project that saw Naughty Dog serve as supervisor. Fearing the possibility of being folded into Naughty Dog, senior staff at Bend asked that their crew be removed from the Uncharted sequel. According to Bloomberg, Sony obliged last month and has since allowed the Oregon team to begin work on a brand-new title.
Bloomberg's report doesn't go on to specify who will take charge of the new Uncharted entry, nor is there any word on what this may mean for Naughty Dog's involvement. That Bend may have been assigned such a project comes as no surprise, though. After all, this very same studio created Uncharted's PlayStation Vita adventure, Golden Abyss, which strangely remains stranded on the nearly 10-year-old handheld.
This news began circulating earlier this morning along with several other pieces of information from Bloomberg's latest Sony-centric exposé. The report alleges that PlayStation is internally focusing more on blockbusters, emphasizing big AAA titles above all else. While all of the above should be taken with a grain of salt for the time being, such details conspicuously come on following the winding down of Japan Studio and a few big exits from veteran PlayStation employees.
Source: Bloomberg