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Uncharted Golden Abyss Original Pitch Saw 13.5M Budget, Multiplayer Originally Conceptualized to Be Mafia Wars-Like

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman




In a newly published (allegedly) greenlight presentation by Bend Studios, the studio details a private meeting that took place at Sony on October 13, 2009, two years before the PlayStation Vita, and Uncharted Golden Abyss were released. In the short five-minute presentation we got an early look at a prototype for a new Uncharted game that would later become Golden Abyss.

Uncharted-Golden-Abyss-Multiplayer-1.jpg


Codenamed Uncharted NGP (Next Generation Portable,) the project’s original pitch wasn’t all that much different from the final release of Golden Abyss. It was to be set in Central America with the story focused on finding the lost city of Quivira with Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, and Victor Sullivan all returning. Both Sully and Nate returned in the final release, however Fisher would be replaced with Marisa Chase, a new character introduced in Golden Abyss.

The video presentation went on to show off various gameplay features, and how Bend Studios was planning on utilizing all the PS Vita features. This included its camera, the touchscreen, back touchpad, gyro features, amongst others.

What’s more, the studio detailed that Uncharted NGP would have a total budget of $13.5 million dollars. For comparison, both Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves had a $20 million dollar budget. According to the slides, in order for the studio and publisher to break even with a $4.5 million in global marketing spending, they would need to sell a total of 647K units, with a 15% ROI (return on investment) set at 744K units, and 35% ROS (return on sale) at 1.08 million units. As reported by Gamingbolt in June of 2012, Golden Abyss had achieved a total of 500,000 units sold world-wide.

Take that info as you want, though it is important to realize this this was a pitch presentation to Sony, and not exact specifics of the actual budget gained for the project. Bend Studios could have gotten more, they could have gotten less. Furthermore, these estimated were based off an expected selling price point of $32, whereas the final release sold for $49.99. Even with inflation accounted for the two years it took to release, that still puts it a little under $17 more than originally expected. If my math is correct (647K units times 32 for break-even price, divide by 50 for new units sold till break even,) and going based off the previous budget info, Golden Abyss should have broken even sometimes in 2012 with some investments spent returning. However, retail cuts aren’t accounted for, which the original $32 could have taken so it’s hard to say if the title did indeed “break-even” or make the company a profit.

While that’s all cool new information to learn about, one of the more exciting parts of the presentation was the one pertaining to how the team had plans for full social integration where players would compete with one another for fame while collecting unique and rare sets of artifacts. That doesn’t sound very far off from the Uncharted Fight For Fortune card game that released soon after.

Upon further inspection of the content included with the presentation, there were additional cliff notes that expanded on what this mode was about, including some real-world augmented reality aspects.

Combine your skills with players around the world to discover, identify, and collect unique and rare sets of artifacts. Compete with players to become the wealthiest and most famous treasure hunter. Utilize NGP based augmented reality to interact with virtual artifacts in the real world!

All of these collectables play into the always-on game, which is all about competing with players world wide to become the wealthiest and most famous treasure hunter:


  • Think Mafia Wars but set in the Uncharted universe utilizing NGP specific features for actions the player must perform to advance in the game.
  • Work online with treasure hunters from around the world to gain funds and experience, while becoming a more adept treasure hunter
  • Operate either as a specialized contractor or as part of a cooperative group
  • Utilize the unique capabilities of the NGP to find & identify artifacts, using AR (Augmented Reality) technology to create a 3D scan of a virtual object, repair a broken vase, or decipher
    an ancient scroll
  • Place found artifacts on display in online public museums or private collections to increase your fame or sell them on the black market to amass your fortune
  • Build your own private collection as you rise through the ranks from treasure hunter to curator of your own private museum
A single screenshot was provided to show off one of the menus.

Uncharted Golden Abyss Multiplayer 2
 

Cattlyst

Member
Golden Abyss was my introduction to the Uncharted series. I got a Vita in 2013 along with Tearaway and it really was quite a brilliant machine that looked like it had a healthy future. Sadly we all know how it went, but yeah Golden Abyss was great. I always thought it was odd that Sully was different though. He's a young guy in UA but an older gent in the console games. Never really understood that.
 

Shakka43

Member
While not on par with the rest, Golden Abyss was still a very solid entry and I wish they would have ported it to the PS4 with the same enhancements as the trilogy.
 
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Synless

Member
Liked the game quite a bit, absolutely hated the image quality. It rubbed me the wrong ways instantly.
 

Digity

Member
I bought a Vita before driving to Newfoundland one summer. The ferry across was a night trek, I stayed up all night and played through the entire game in one sitting. I'm not the biggest handheld guy but they managed to do a pretty good job with the property and incorporating some of the Vita's additional functions.
 
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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
No surprise that it flopped, and no surprise that people doesn’t care enough to ask for a console port

its choked full of gimmicks
 

Ozzie666

Member
Needs a remake on current platforms. Drop the touch controls and a good solid experience on the big screen. At the very least a remaster.
 
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