New Naughty Dog Franchise – The Last of Us

Dec11

Naughty Dog, the company I founded, has just released the trailer for their new game — and new franchise! This is the first new series since Uncharted launched in 2007. I have to say the new one looks totally awesome because it’s well — post apocalyptic zombie (which I love) — and in true Naughty Dog fashion totally gorgeous. Plus I love spunky heroines. This one, seemingly, but not actually voiced by actress Ellen Page of Juno fame* is totally cute, in a kind of jailbait sort of way.

I can totally see how the kind of intimate hand to hand and gunplay mechanics that Naughty Dog has been perfecting with Nathan Drake would adapt perfectly to this sort of The Road meets Juno world.

So I’m even more excited than I was for Uncharted 3, which is saying a lot!

*NOTE: According to this website, the leads are Miss Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker, as given by tweet from someone at Naughty Dog. And @Neil_Druckmann, my friend and the lead designer confirmed via twitter too, so it’s accurate.

By: agavin
Comments (22)

Posted in: Games

Tagged as: Ellen Page, Miss Ashley Johnson, Nathan Drake, Naughty Dog, Playstation 3, The Last of Us, Troy Baker, Uncharted, Uncharted 3, Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception, Video game

@wolfflame21

You think cool beard man is Nolan North?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I don’t know. Let me listen again.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Apparently, Troy Baker.
http://twitter.com/StargamerX StargamerX

Have you known that Naughty Dog has had a full, second development team for the past two years? I’m really surprised, since ND has said they’ve been 100% focused on Uncharted 3.

When you were there I’m pretty sure you guys only had one team right? This is the first time Naughty Dog has split to my knowledge.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  We had Jak 1 and CTR going at the same time and UC1 during Jak 3 and Jak X.
Matteo Mazzarini

Sad thing to see, in my opinion…Naughty Dog is a great team for certain, and one which I extimate a lot, but honestly I’m fed up with all these adult-games, human beings and blood, and no more fantasy characters/elements. I miss Mr Gavin and Mr Rubin making platformers like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter …
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Evan and crew loved (and worked on) Crash and Jak too. I, myself, miss the platformy gameplay. Some of my favorite Uncharted levels were the ones with few/no enemies and a lot of climbing. But trends change. I also miss 80s movies.
Ricardo fernandes Souza

It’s very nice to see a company grow with the technology of games like naughty dog …
Ricardo fernandes Souza

do you visit naughty dog? i mean, do you still return to the kennel you founded?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I lunch with the guys. I actually haven’t been inside the office in some time
  - Ricardo fernandes Souza
    
    off course…they are you friends…sorry about this question…
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Ricardo fernandes Souza

“last of us” the new game of naughty dog…
it does that mean naughty dog will give some rest to uncharted?
Kaizer Allen

Do you think they should have created “Uncharted 4″ first and waited for the PS4 before releasing the trailer for this one, or start promoting the new franchise? I honestly believe that “Uncharted” is not a done deal yet, there are a lot of things that they can add up to make the story more interesting in the sequel. I think “The Last of Us” arrived too early, but it is a welcome addition to the intellectual properties that Naughty Dog created/holds (Crash, Jak, Uncharted, and now Last).
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  They didn’t say they were “done” with Uncharted But console cycles are growing longer and also don’t forget that people who make games are extremely creative (we make up worlds for a living!) and it can get a little tedious to work on the same exact world for 5-7 years! Sometimes it’s nice to do something a bit different. They work on it much longer than it takes to play it. Uncharted was started in 2003! And they work on it 6-7 days a week, year in, year out.
  - Ricardo fernandes Souza
    
    so…you worked in the beginner development of uncharted drakes fortune?
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      I was “in charge” of the team for a year and change (it was a long project) in 2003-4. But it was mostly staffing and managerial. I left the creative element to Evan Wells.
a jak fan

So does this mean there will never be a new jak game???
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Not soon I imagine, but Sony and Naughty Dog own all the rights so it is easily doable if they wanted to do it.
  - a jak fan
    
    I honestly have to say that to me the jak series was the pinnacle of naughty dog’s work. That series had a lot more imagination and polish to it than any other series they dealt with. Crash was good but was still a bit lacking in creating a full living and breathing universe. The thing the uncharted series lacks and probably their new game also(since it is set in world resembling the real world) clearly is imagination. It is very sad to see hollywood-type lack of imagination enter the domain of games. The reason for that is probably the skyrocketing budgets that keep naughty dog and any other developers from taking risks. Anything that does not fit the low-class mind simply gets cut from games to lower risks just like hollywood. Games have to resemble reality for otherwise the inbred average mind wont be able to grasp them.
    Maybe it is for the better that games lost their touch since now i am able to concentrate more on theoretical physics.
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      You’re basically saying they have moved away (in a genre sense) from Fantasy toward modified reality, which is certainly true. This is pretty much because of demographic reasons I’ve discussed in these comments, but is certainly a matter of subjective taste. Now, I myself am a big fantasy lover, although I do often like my fantasy pretty “gritty.”
http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin

The video was broken (for I don’t know how long because Youtube pulled it), but I find the official Sony one and restored it.