Sony San Diego have hired a Naughty Dog developer to work on an unannounced project.
Naughty Dog environment artist, Zak Oliver has previously worked on The Last of Us, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and most recently The Last of Us Part 2. At Sony San Diego he will work as a senior environment artist on a new project that has yet to be announced.
There have been rumours that Sony San Diego will be taking over the Uncharted franchise for some time now but it remains to be seen. Job listings for Sony San Diego, such as a senior lighting artist, require that applicants have experience with third-person action games, and Uncharted certainly fits that description.
It also states that the Visual Arts Service Group, who are in partnership with the new Sony San Diego studio, is responsible for cinematic performances in Sony PlayStation franchises like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Killzone, and other iconic series.
Naughty Dog have previously stated that they are finished with the Uncharted story, for now at least, but with Naughty Dog developers joining Sony’s first-party studio, could this new recruitment mean a new Uncharted game is in the works for PS5?
The Uncharted series is one of Sony’s greatest successes, including four games in the main-line story, a PSVita game, as well as a spinoff sequel called Uncharted: Lost Legacy featuring Chloe and Nadine from Uncharted 4.
The final installment in the series saw Nathan Drake go on his last adventure, which wrapped up the main story after so many years. If Naughty Dog concluded Nathan Drake’s journey, could the new Uncharted be another spinoff game of the same name or something new entirely? We’ll have to wait and see.
Head on over to read about how Naughty Dog were able to create The Last of Us 2’s scariest foe.
