120°

Interview with Evan Wells, Co-President of Naughty Dog

Hobby Consolas sits down with Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells to talk about how the industry has changed in the last twenty years, whether we can expect to see a remastered collection of the first three Uncharted games, and the possibility of The Last of Us 2.

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Jalva3350d ago

Don't bother, Naughty Dog are capable of so much more than reviving some E-rated platformer franchise from 15 years ago for nostalgic people, focus on new IP's and The Last of Us 2, some things are just better left in the past...

-Foxtrot3350d ago (Edited 3350d ago )

Speak for yourself

I would love if they created a new Crash game, the levels could be so open and big that they would be basically transform Crash into a huge 3D platformer game.

If anyone else do it then I feel they wouldn't be able to pull it off.

Travellers Tales might as I thought Twinsanity was fantastic

Jalva3350d ago (Edited 3350d ago )

"the levels could be so open and big that they would be basically tranform Crash into a huge 3D platformer game. "

They're already making that game with Uncharted 4, the only difference would be replacing Drake with Crash and making the environments all cartoonish and retro looking, they've proven that they have the potential for so much more... but suit yourself, I would just rather see them moving forward instead of backward.

Rhezin3349d ago

Crash all the way.

"Sometimes you need to go backward to go forward."

-Matthew Mcconahey XD

but seriously Crash was one of the best games I played as a kid, and would LOVE a new one.

breakpad3349d ago (Edited 3349d ago )

if Sony has reaquired the Crash b rights then they probably give it to another developer rather than ND as nearly none from the old ND stuff remained to the company and changed to big budget developer with specific IPs ..most possible scenario is that Sony themselves (Sony Japan) developing the game or a other relative studio like MM...as long as Cerny is in Sony then a possible next Sony owned Crash B will be a good game for sure

Retroman3349d ago

@ jalv

R U fking kidding!!! thousands of gamers been waiting WAAAAAAY to long for Crash make a come back.

nizan3343d ago

Stupid fat Ass if u dont know what is crash bandicoot then get ur ass out of here !!

Magegi3349d ago

It all started at that playstation 4 commercial. And it seems that all the "easter-eggs" are there for reason. First I thought wtf Ryu as a taxi driver.... And what THAT turned out to be... Street Fighter game, PS4 console exclusive!

I think Crash is coming back alright... ;)

panbit863349d ago

The thing is that a Crash game now would be also a much easier game for ND to make. With a much smaller team and less money, time, etc they could easily pull it off. And commercially it would be an INSANE success! I see nothing but positive results by such an effort. The same goes for Jak too imho.

130°

Monopoly Go Devs Spent More On Marketing Than It Cost To Develop The Last Of Us 2

The game's huge marketing budget has worked out for it, bringing in $2 billion revenue in its first 10 months of release.

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ChasterMies34d ago

That’s how it is with most movies. Why should it be any different with games?

Eonjay33d ago

It could also be that development cost were just very very low.

Kaii34d ago

I think it's about time for government agencies to step into mobile gaming and look around, this is shit.

just_looken33d ago

Do not worry 82yr old joe biden is on it he will have 88-100 year old friends in the government to fire up there talky box's.

90°

The Sounds of the Fireflies ("The Last of Us") concert kicks-off on April 28th, 2024

"The Game Music Foundation are today very proud and pleased to announce an additional concert, circling back to the roots of Game Muisic Festival in Poland. On April 28th, 2024, the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw will once again become a place to celebrate the art of video game music, featuring scores from The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II." - The Game Music Foundation.

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Naughty Dog’s Next Game Is “Really Ambitious” And Will Be “Really Hard” To Create

Speaking on what’s coming next for Naughty Dog, which could be either their new IP or The Last Of Us Part III, Druckmann gave what he seems to feel are realities of the project he’s talking about. That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”

H949d ago

"I’ve really surrendered to knowing it’s going to be really hard, knowing it’s going to stress members of the team out"
As if crunch wasn't stressing them enough

helicoptergirl49d ago

Members of the team don't have to crunch anymore

helicoptergirl49d ago

According to people who work there

H949d ago

So the people who remained in a studio that had tons of workers quiting and others laid off said that they don't have to crunch, and you are just believing that

frostypants48d ago (Edited 48d ago )

They absolutely will wind up having to crunch. Happens at the end of almost every software project development cycle, especially with release date pressures. It's part of the job. Obviously they aren't in a crunch when they aren't in that late phase. But it's wishful thinking if they think they won't see that stress again. Druckmann himself seems to be aware of that.

helicoptergirl48d ago (Edited 48d ago )

Yes I believe them. The people who want to crunch can do it. The people who mentally and physically can't, don't actually have to. Some have young babies at home. Things have changed since the Schreier report.

rlow148d ago (Edited 48d ago )

@helicoptergirl
It wishful thinking to think some workers can choose to crunch or not to do so. That’s akin to people you work with saying they don’t have to do work they don’t like and you’re the one that has to take up the slack. That’s not how things work. Especially if your the person assigned to a specific task that has to be completed for the development to move forward. It’s a team sport when it comes to making a game. As with most things in life. Now that they are a smaller group, it’s even more important for everyone to pull their weight. Peace

helicoptergirl48d ago

@rlow that was exactly the mentality before the exposure and it was talked about and reported on. It's different now. You know, sometimes things and attitudes just change for the better. They knew they needed to change and they have and they're not stopping trying to make the creative environment as good as it can be.

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Tristan198249d ago

When someone pays another person to do a specific job in exchange for a certain rate of pay, it's called work.

H949d ago

They didn't sign to crunch and neither were they paid for it, people were hospitalized in Naughty Dog

MatrixxGT49d ago (Edited 49d ago )

Exactly most of these people wouldn’t last a season in the trades.

-Foxtrot49d ago

I f******* love how many people are doing a complete 180 on their views of crunch culture despite the awful stories reported on over the many years just because we’re talking about NaughtyDog

You can’t just cherry pick what to be mad about

“They signed a contract…it’s called work…that’s life…it’s a job”

I mean really guys, if this was EA you’d be having a field day

I bet you any money if any of these guys regardless of studio went in and said to their superior “Listen, don’t feel like the over time tonight, I’ll just stick to my normal contracted hours if that’s alright” I highly doubt they’d be given a warm response

Crows9049d ago

@h9

Actually yes they did. If overtime is mentioned...that's crunch.

Christopher49d ago

@Tristan1982: The problem is crunch is because of the inefficient management and sudden changes in projects. ND made major story changes based on some feedback, that results in months of rework, redesign, etc. And none of those changes were built into the project from the get-go, so they still have to meet a deadline.

@H9: One person. And they did sign up for crunch, ND is notorious for hiring people who don't mind it. That's the problem, they tell you who they are, people just aren't listening. And, they did get paid, just their QA level of people are paid shit, which is an industry issue for something so freaking important. And people wonder why we have such broken games at launch. Because companies don't want to pay to deliver as long as people will buy enough to get them past first few months of patches and then re-release a major patch with an expansion to get people to come back.

@-Foxtrot " You can’t just cherry pick what to be mad about " -- N4G home of 'hold my beer' on that alone.

CantThinkOfAUsername49d ago

The kindda guy to guilt trip others into overwork or tell them to be better slaves ('employees'). Exactly what corps like. How does it taste?

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 49d ago
anast49d ago

They get paid and they signed the contract. It's not a slave factory.

Shane Kim49d ago

Shh... your in the era of feeling sorry for people.

jwillj2k449d ago (Edited 49d ago )

Assuming you have a job, how would you feel working 80 hours a week for the same pay? You’ve not experienced crunch otherwise you wouldn’t be speaking like this.

senorfartcushion48d ago

As somebody who has crunched before. No, it wasn't my choice, no, you couldn't handle it, and no, you don't work in a better industry than I do.

Markusb3348d ago

exactly, get the game out before PS6 and if it takes crunch, or over time which you get paid for, get on with it

anast48d ago

"Assuming you have a job"

Assuming I haven't worked more for less, I suppose. And yes, I do.

"Shh... your in the era of feeling sorry for people."

I feel awful for the people that fought for the workers and got stuck holding the bag and lost everything.

"no, you couldn't handle it, "

You mean "I"

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Christopher49d ago

I really hope this isn't management BS stress. I get wanting to put the best out, finding the best new ways and concepts, and ensuring your design is just top notch and not wasteful and fulfilling, but when I hear some manager talking about this my first thought is "Are these jerks changing paradigms on a regular basis that's making people play catch up and redo work to meet their new goals?"

48d ago
Kiryu199248d ago

They lost so many great experienced talented people over the past 5 years

anast48d ago

Burnout is real. I even had to change my job because of it.

Markusb3348d ago

as if you dont get paid for crunch, get on with it,

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Stuart575649d ago

That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”

Not 'is' but 'will be', kinda suggests that they haven't started yet, hope not.

Come on ND, a game PLEAAAAASSSSEEEE. Desperate this gen.

S2Killinit49d ago (Edited 49d ago )

From the article:

“Working on this new game, it’s really ambitious, parts of it are really hard,…”

That is the actual quote. They are already working on it.

LucasRuinedChildhood49d ago (Edited 49d ago )

Yeah, a lot of people push fake narratives about NaughtyDog and misquote things. That quote is very straightforward.

https://twitter.com/MitchyD...
Above is the complete debunking of a false story that still gets spread around all the time. And the bad faith actors doing it also only pin it on Druckmann for some reason and ignore Straley. They want to portray Druckmann as an evil schemer, even when the false story they're spreading doesn't align with their narrative. They don't care about reality ...

SuckerPunch doesn't get even 1% of this criticism and they haven't provided any update whatsoever on their next game, and it's a sequel not a new IP, so turnaround would be quicker. That's not logical.

Markusb3348d ago

probably 7 years out at this point after wasting all that time on factions

Stuart575649d ago

Also, just off-topic slightly but..

Does anyone think that layoffs now may well be making space for AI integration of game development, and 'crunch-time', 'unsustainable', 'big budget' are all terms been used to butter us up to receiving the news that AI integration will help and maintain the level of AAA games that were accustomed to? Perhaps the layoffs were the devs that didn't join a union quick enough and if only they had the smarts of SAG members and strike while the time is right, before its too late?! Imagine DEV's on strike at a time like this, there's already a game drought.

isarai49d ago

Nah, quite literally every industry around is having layoffs.

shinoff218348d ago

I work in manufacturing. Layoffs here to. Especially people with no skill. I feel bad for them more then anything.

isarai48d ago (Edited 48d ago )

I work in advertisement, Im being laid off in may despite being the 3rd best on my team of 15 just under the team lead and assistant team lead, and the assistant team lead is out next week. Yet the last two years we've all been congratulated for record numbers. Times are weird.

shinoff218348d ago

Game drought. Lol what. I can't keep up. There's so many dope games releasing. I gotta ask what do you play

Stuart575648d ago

Not Naughty Dog games, not this gen. You know, Naughty Dog? Who the article is about?

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 48d ago
Brazz49d ago

I hope they remember to make it realy fun to play.

FunAndGun48d ago

I hope it's extra woke and really fun to play.

Kneetos49d ago

And then Sony will lay off 900 more staff to save costs

Christopher49d ago

Is this supposed to be a big gotcha after Microsoft laid off 1,900 and we're ignoring that? Let alone the over 16,000 other layoffs from Microsoft in 2023?

Kneetos49d ago

This is an article talking about Sony, no one said anything about Microsoft

And we should always be reminded of it like people are doing with Microsoft, Sony shouldn't get a free pass either

Christopher49d ago (Edited 49d ago )

Yes, and this article is 100% about Sony firing people.

ND says new game is ambitious - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!
Sony publishes new gameplay video - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!
Sony announces weekend sale deals - until Sony lays off 900 more staff to save costs!

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