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PlayStation is Building a NEW Development Team

This has got to be attractive for some game devs in the industry. Get to work on the same team that helped create the visual fidelity of Naughty Dog games. It shouldnt take them too long to release a hit knowing their background.
 

3liteDragon

Member
Didn't they already try that with the rumored new San Diego team that was working on Uncharted 5 and then quietly got shut down?

That San Diego team is the PlayStation Studios Creative Arts team & the Visual Arts team is a separate team within that same studio that works with PlayStation Studios’ Malaysia support branch. They were expanding their support studios & talent, it wasn’t a new game development studio.
The new Malaysia studio was founded in Kuala Lumpur as a support studio, working closely with PlayStation’s Creative Arts team based in San Diego, and more specifically the Visual Arts team within it. The studio has 77 employees working on creating character models and other visual assets as well as motion capture and more.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
Bend were working on a new Uncharted in collab with Naughty Dog up until early 2021 when they asked to work on their own original project.

I always presumed ND was bringing Uncharted back in house as they're fully multi project now and they re-hired Shaun soon after Bend stopped working on Uncharted. Maybe this is a part of that process to make a new Uncharted or maybe it's something else, who knows.

Yes, that was one of two rumored Uncharted projects. The other was being helmed by the secret San Diego team that has since dissolved.

 

AmuroChan

Member
That San Diego team is the PlayStation Creative Arts team & the Visual Arts team is a separate team within that same studio that works with PlayStation Studios’ Malaysia support branch. They were expanding their support studios & talent, it wasn’t a new game development studio.

Different team. The SD team helmed by Michael Mumbauer has since dissolved. Michael confirmed it on David Jaffe's podcast.
 

vivftp

Member
Yes, that was one of two rumored Uncharted projects. The other was being helmed by the secret San Diego team that has since dissolved.

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IIRC, (it's been a while) the rumored secret San Diego team turned out to be nothing and it was actually VASG who was trying to strike out and form a new dev studio at the time. They originally were pondering projects to work on and thought about remaking Uncharted 1, but that would've been far too costly, so they would up getting the green light to remake TLOU.

It seemed like the secret San Diego team was just a rumor that was cobbled together and missed the mark.
 

AmuroChan

Member
IIRC, (it's been a while) the rumored secret San Diego team turned out to be nothing and it was actually VASG who was trying to strike out and form a new dev studio at the time. They originally were pondering projects to work on and thought about remaking Uncharted 1, but that would've been far too costly, so they would up getting the green light to remake TLOU.

It seemed like the secret San Diego team was just a rumor that was cobbled together and missed the mark.

Based on the conversation Michael Mumbauer had with Jaffe on his stream, they had a full team and was in pre-development stages, but never went to full production before Sony shut them down.
 
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Azurro

Banned
They'll be working with Naughty Dog? If so, then I'm guessing they'll be in California? Then meh, more woke garbage.
 
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Pedro Motta

Member
The problem with this is the same issues The Initiative has. There just isn't enough talent out there for AAA game designers and developers.

Starting a new studio is fine and all, but staffing it with enough quality talent is no small hurdle.
It’s a support studio, they can poach from the film Vfx industry.
 
The important question is, will this be a AAAA game?
usosilly-laugh-haha.gif
 

EDMIX

Member
Uncharted Part 1

Naughty Dog you better freakin' not....lol
Shaun Escayg is back so give me Uncharted 5 or a new IP.

Why would anyone doing a remake be then tasked with Uncharted 5? lol

Thats like assuming Bluepoint games is going to make Uncharted 5 or something weird like that lol

As in...all 3 things you are talking about might be happening merely by teams that actually do that.

Uncharted remake by bluepoint or some other team
Uncharted 5 by that san diego team
new IP by the other half of Naughty Dog
Other half that did The Last Of Us part 2, working on Part 3

For all we know, that is the set up that is happening currently, as in...its not an either or, but gamers seem to assume this for some weird reason lol

AmuroChan AmuroChan no

 
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I would love to see another Uncharted game.

EDIT : Oh wow...just as I hit click on post reply, Tom Henderson's tweet popped up lol
 
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yurinka

Member
Didn't they already try that with the rumored new San Diego team that was working on Uncharted 5 and then quietly got shut down?

The San Diego team you mention is the Sony VASG one that codeveloped the TLOUP1 remake. Before pitching the TLOUP1 remake to PS Studios, they wanted to do a Uncharted 1 remake.

But Sony VASG normally only does visual stuff like cutscenes or animations for most Sony AAA game (being the Uncharted and TLOU games some of them), and saw that Uncharted 1 needed too many changes regarding gameplay and design, and didn't have enough staff and expertise on this, so they decided to make instead TLOU1 because it needed less related changes and doing mostly a visual overhaul already felt ok.

So back then they were starting the preproduction/prototyping an Uncharted 1 remake, not Uncharted 5. According to Jason Schreier some years ago ND was working in an Uncharted spinoff with Bend until Bend moved to make their own new IP when they are working on.

So maybe this new studio that is a spinoff of Sony VASG that is working with ND after TLOUP1 they continued working on that spinoff. But I assume it's more likely that they'll work instead on the PC port of TLOUP1 and after that the PS5 & PC versions of TLOU2.

No, I don't mean just a new studio. I meant new studio working with Visual Arts, collaborating with ND, to work on new Uncharted or something similar. That's essentially what the San Diego one was. In fact, the head of that studio was Michael Mumbauer, who was the senior director of Sony Visual Arts.
The new studio created with Visual Arts staff collaborating with ND is the Michael Mumbauer one. The one that did work on TLOUP1. The job offer in the OP seems to be for that one, wouldn't make sense to create a new one when they can expand the one they already have.
 
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I honestly think it has to be the rumored Uncharted game.

2 days ago, we got the news that :

Sony is building a new development team in collaboration with PSS Visual Arts and Naughty Dog, to make a new triple-A game.​


The job application also says that
Currently we are co-developing an exciting new project with Naughty Dog in a beloved franchise.

We get a few things from this:
- It's an AAA title;
- Beloved franchise, so it's not a new IP;
- Naughty Dog is working on multiple stuff related with The Last of Us...the chances of this being the franchise are slim at best.
- Jak & Daxter could be a possibility...but the rumors for a new Uncharted have been circling around quite a lot:



It's crazy how much stuff is in the pipline for Playstation right now...and all we know officially is Ragnarok, 2 Marvel games and that the yearly MLB game is coming, lmao.
 
Uncharted Studio?
That's what I'm thinking. It's time for Naughty Dog to move on from the franchise, but it's difficult for Sony to just sunset it. If you can maintain quality but shift the franchise away from Naughty Dog to allow them to venture on to bigger and better things, you end up in a win-win situation.

Naughty Dog hadn't maintained a single franchise across generations until Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us.

Through growth and maybe some employees going over to the new company, they can fairly easily make an Uncharted studio. Similar to 343 industries did with Halo, but under the supervision and guidance of the original studio.

What makes the most sense for them to work on first is an Uncharted 1-3 remake.
 

SSfox

Member
You guys gotta be careful, could be some incredible new game, just as it can be Uncharted 4 remake.
 
The other benefit of created a sister studio to Naughty Dog is that you create more growth opportunities for Naughty Dog staff.

You can only have so many creative directors at Naughty Dog. You can only have so many Co-President's at Naughty Dog.

Similar to Cory Barlog stepping away from God of War Ragnarok and focusing on a different game franchise allows Eric Williams to work as Director on the game. If you don't grow, everyone gets stuck in the same position and can't get significant raises and build their resume internally. This means that they have to leave the studio in order to further their careers. You don't want that.

Why not just grow internally at Naughty Dog? They already have been and there is an inherent risk with growing too fast. They were once SIE's largest developer until Bungie was purchased. They have 725 employees based on linkedin. It's easier to create another studio and place less pressure on Naughty Dog to continue maintaining the Uncharted franchise. This new studio could also revisit Jak and Daxter. Also say you have to close this studio down because it doesn't work out, it's better to close this studio down than to announce layoffs at your flagship company.
 
Hopefully this means ND can make more games in general

The successes of Uncharted and TLOU really kind of boxed them in. You saw the same thing happen with Halo and Bungie.

Naughty Dog historically has grown because they keep evolving as a studio. I'd like their next game to be a 3rd person action sci-fi shooter akin to uncharted meets metroid. Look at GoT, it's just an Assassin's Creed game done better. Naughty Dog should look at what they can do better. They could also try their first FPS.

This could really open things up for them to walk away from both of those franchises while leaving them in good hands.
 
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