so despite uncharted golden abyss shipping in december 2011, bend studio have yet to have their next game announced. i was expecting it at e3 for vita and its absence makes me wonder.
- if they were working on another vita game you'd expect to see it now given that they've already established their tech on the system and they've generally made games on a two year schedule, yet they missed the perfect opportunity to announce it at e3, instead talking about god of war 1+2, dead nation and flower. yoshida has also said that all sony's studios are working on ps4 (source).
- it's understandable that sony would want an uncharted game on ps4. it's probably their biggest brand behind god of war and gran turismo, is a real showpiece for new hardware and a crowdpleaser among critics and fans.
- on the other hand naughty dog is establishing itself as a brand in of itself outside of uncharted with the last of us; they're becoming synonymous with highly polished games with memorable stories. having them make more uncharted instead of trying something new wastes that to a certain extent by combining the two selling points, as both uncharted and naughty dog can sell on their own. there's lots of pulls for the top talent at naughty dog towards independent development if they can't scratch their creative itches, uncharted 2 designer rich lemarchand left to become an academic helping young indies for example. so they might feel done with nathan drake and want to try something new again like they did after jak x.
- bend studio can make a competent uncharted. golden abyss has 80 on metacritic, with most criticsm falling on tacked on the awful touch controls to try and sell the vita's features that wouldn't be an issue on ps4 and they now know the franchise and gameplay well enough to blow things up for the sequel.
- sony has no qualms switching developers for the fourth console entry in a series: see sly: thieves in time.
so yeah. what do people think. maybe wishful thinking, as i definetely want this to happen, but i think it's plausible.
- if they were working on another vita game you'd expect to see it now given that they've already established their tech on the system and they've generally made games on a two year schedule, yet they missed the perfect opportunity to announce it at e3, instead talking about god of war 1+2, dead nation and flower. yoshida has also said that all sony's studios are working on ps4 (source).
- it's understandable that sony would want an uncharted game on ps4. it's probably their biggest brand behind god of war and gran turismo, is a real showpiece for new hardware and a crowdpleaser among critics and fans.
- on the other hand naughty dog is establishing itself as a brand in of itself outside of uncharted with the last of us; they're becoming synonymous with highly polished games with memorable stories. having them make more uncharted instead of trying something new wastes that to a certain extent by combining the two selling points, as both uncharted and naughty dog can sell on their own. there's lots of pulls for the top talent at naughty dog towards independent development if they can't scratch their creative itches, uncharted 2 designer rich lemarchand left to become an academic helping young indies for example. so they might feel done with nathan drake and want to try something new again like they did after jak x.
- bend studio can make a competent uncharted. golden abyss has 80 on metacritic, with most criticsm falling on tacked on the awful touch controls to try and sell the vita's features that wouldn't be an issue on ps4 and they now know the franchise and gameplay well enough to blow things up for the sequel.
- sony has no qualms switching developers for the fourth console entry in a series: see sly: thieves in time.
so yeah. what do people think. maybe wishful thinking, as i definetely want this to happen, but i think it's plausible.
