It appears there’s more to the rumors about the Uncharted reboot than meets the eye.
Over the weekend, rumors emerged that a first-party Sony studio is working on a reboot of Uncharted. This news comes some time after Naughty Dog but confirmed it had moved on from the best-selling Sony franchise. Thus, many speculated that Sony had put someone else to the task and not Bend Studio, which had already declined the offer to pursue a new game.
Now, the root of the rumors have stepped forward to shed more light on the remake/reboot.
According to @Speclizer_, the rumors started from his private research before sharing proof.
It’s important to note that they were careful to point out that they aren’t sure if the reboot is still in development.
Here are other details that @Speclizer pointed out:
- They noticed “HUNDREDS of references to TLOU Remake” hidden in the game files of The Last of Us Part 2 2.
- The iconic plane crash scene from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is referenced,. In fact, a script confirmed that it’s built to run using the latest version of Naughty Dog’s in-house engine.
- Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group was, at some point, involved in the remake/reboot. The support studio has been hit with multiple waves of layoffs over the years.
VASG was initially reported as the lead developer of The Last of Us Part 1 in 2021. Naughty Dog eventually took over mid-way at some point, relegating the studio to a supporting role. It’s possible this wasn’t a demotion but to give VASG more time to work on the Uncharted reboot.
Nearly four years have passed since The Last of Us Part 2 came out in 2020. Even when AAA video games can take years and cost hundreds of millions, this is a long enough time to come up with something substantial enough worth showing off.
We can’t say Naughty Dog is working on it either. Aside from what we’ve already mentioned, lead game designer, Emilia Schatz, mentioned in Grounded 2: Making The Last of Us Part 2, that Naughty Dog doesn’t work on multiple games simultaneously. The studio prefers to put all its resources on one game before moving on. With the studio confirmed to be working on a new game that isn’t The Last of Us Part 3 (and the fact that it has moved on from Uncharted) confirms that its in-development project is likely going to be a new IP.
While VASG could indeed be working on the Uncharted reboot, we hope the recent layoffs doesn’t affect its ability to deliver a remake that meets expectations.
Uncharted is one of Sony’s most iconic and best-selling titles. It’s part of PlayStation’s shift towards more mature games in the mid-2000s after being predominantly defined by child-friendly platformers and JRPGs throughout the PS1 and PS2 era.
The last numbered Uncharted game was released in 2016. The game eventually sold over 15 million units. It received a standalone expansion in 2017, The Lost Legacy, and later, a remastered bundle, the Legacy of Thieves Collection.
With Xbox releasing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the Xbox Series S/X later this year (the game is expected to come to PlayStation 5 eventually), the announcement of a reboot of Uncharted could give Sony a dog in this fight for tomb raiding supremacy.
Alas, we’re at the mercy of an official announcement, which isn’t coming anytime soon as we recently got a State of Play event that revealed Until Dawn for PC and PS5, among others.
Nevertheless, with millions of copies sold over the years and a live-action movie adaptation that grossed nearly four times its budget despite the lukewarm critical reception, it’s easy to see why Sony is interested in continuing the series, even if it means tearing down all that Naughty Dog had already built.
