Something is genuinely wrong with Naughty Dog, and it’s worth talking about because they were once Sony's premier first-party studio. At the 2026 State of Play there wasn't a single trailer for ND despite every other major PlayStation flagship getting a showcase — not even a 'coming soon.' The irony is that their last big title, The Last of Us Part II, has been sitting on Sony’s shelf for nearly half of the PS5 cycle. That's an unprecedented delay for what was supposed to be a defining generation-closer and it highlights how over-budgeted they are on one project while being too slow on everything else. Meanwhile Insomniac delivered Spider-Man 2 in 2023 and Santa Monica released God of War Ragnarok the same year, yet Naughty Dog is still nothing. This isn't just a bad schedule — it's structural. They committed to such massive scope they can only finish one thing at a time instead of shipping two quality games per cycle like their peers.
The Uncharted situation is even worse and harder to stomach. The franchise hasn't seen a new entry in over thirteen years, and the reality is that Sony has already internally decided it isn't coming back as a primary IP on this generation. It was sidelined for Ghost of Tsushima 2, which itself got pushed, pushing ND further out into the weeds. When I look at how Naughty Dog operates compared to other top studios, it paints a picture of a team whose ambitious instincts have turned into paralysis by analysis. They want every cinematic detail and every branching path perfected on an already maximalist title — that's how you end up with one project taking five years instead of three. I don't see another Uncharted ever again, which is heartbreaking because it was probably the most polished linear narrative in gaming history. Instead Sony will likely put them on a 'balanced portfolio' mandate and force two smaller releases per cycle — not that anyone at ND would actually call those small games.
I also want to call out how this affects their talent retention indirectly; top developers get bored watching a studio sit idle for years, which is what leads to the exodus of senior leadership you see elsewhere. If Sony doesn't rein in Naughty Dog's scope ambition they will continue to be the outlier that the company pays attention to and then blames when things go sideways. This isn't a death sentence — I hope it's not because their games are still some of the best ever made — but the current trajectory is unsustainable for Sony's partnership model with first-party studios. They need this studio back on a rhythm where they deliver two polished experiences every couple years, and if that means scaling down Uncharted ambitions to actually ship something tangible sooner I welcome it. The better version of Naughty Dog is one that ships at least twice before the next hardware cycle, even if that means no more 80-hour epics with three branching endings — which they shouldn't want anyway because those designs never hold up as well as the tighter ones do.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/naughty-dog-no-new-uncharted
The Uncharted situation is even worse and harder to stomach. The franchise hasn't seen a new entry in over thirteen years, and the reality is that Sony has already internally decided it isn't coming back as a primary IP on this generation. It was sidelined for Ghost of Tsushima 2, which itself got pushed, pushing ND further out into the weeds. When I look at how Naughty Dog operates compared to other top studios, it paints a picture of a team whose ambitious instincts have turned into paralysis by analysis. They want every cinematic detail and every branching path perfected on an already maximalist title — that's how you end up with one project taking five years instead of three. I don't see another Uncharted ever again, which is heartbreaking because it was probably the most polished linear narrative in gaming history. Instead Sony will likely put them on a 'balanced portfolio' mandate and force two smaller releases per cycle — not that anyone at ND would actually call those small games.
I also want to call out how this affects their talent retention indirectly; top developers get bored watching a studio sit idle for years, which is what leads to the exodus of senior leadership you see elsewhere. If Sony doesn't rein in Naughty Dog's scope ambition they will continue to be the outlier that the company pays attention to and then blames when things go sideways. This isn't a death sentence — I hope it's not because their games are still some of the best ever made — but the current trajectory is unsustainable for Sony's partnership model with first-party studios. They need this studio back on a rhythm where they deliver two polished experiences every couple years, and if that means scaling down Uncharted ambitions to actually ship something tangible sooner I welcome it. The better version of Naughty Dog is one that ships at least twice before the next hardware cycle, even if that means no more 80-hour epics with three branching endings — which they shouldn't want anyway because those designs never hold up as well as the tighter ones do.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/naughty-dog-no-new-uncharted