Naughty Dog abandons its franchises

[blaseblase]

This can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing but one thing I've noticed is that once Naughty Dog moves on from a series they completely abandon it never to go back.

Crash Bandicoot
Jak and Dexter
Uncharted
The Last of Us

The only time they worked on two franchises simultaneously was when they were wrapping up the Uncharted storyline. Sadly what this means is that we will never get another Jak and Daxter or Uncharted unless Sony gives it to another developer. We are getting The Last of Us 3 but that might be it once they figure out the next new idea for a game.

 

[Jawth]

I'm not sure why Sony never was willing to hire more people to revive those old franchises.

I think a new Jack and Daxter would do well. Especially on a AA budget. Bend, Bluepoint, or another studio could probably make a good sequel. Ditto with Uncharted, it was actually done in Golden Abyss on Vita.

 

[blaseblase]

I'm not sure why Sony never was willing to hire more people to revive those old franchises.

I think a new Jack and Daxter would do well. Especially on a AA budget. Bend, Bluepoint, or another studio could probably make a good sequel. Ditto with Uncharted, it was actually done in Golden Abyss on Vita.

I feel like Drake's story doesn't need a sequel but they could totally do a prequel about a young Sully.

 

[My Spot]

In their defense they don't own the rights to Crash Bandicoot and haven't in over 20 years.

 

[blaseblase]

In their defense they don't own the rights to Crash Bandicoot and haven't in over 20 years.

They are owned by Sony, thus all of their titles are owned by Sony. My understanding is Sony allows them to do what they want and they have consistently chosen to develop a new series and abandon the previous ones. If they wanted to work on a new Crash Bandicoot you think Sony would say no?

 

[My Spot]

They are owned by Sony, thus all of their titles are owned by Sony.

Only the PS1 Crash games.

 

[blaseblase]

Only the PS1 Crash games.

Sony owns all the series they have made.

 

[My Spot]

Sony owns all the series they have made.

 

[iNoScopedJFK]

Sony owns all the series they have made.

Crash is owned by Activision. Sony only ever had a publishing deal with Universal Interactive for the Crash games that ended in 2000.

 

[Jawth]

Sony owns all the series they have made.

Not crash. They sold it a long time ago.

 

[mixmastermo]

Crash is owned by Activision. Sony only ever had a publishing deal with Universal Interactive for the Crash games that ended in 2000.

This right here. Anyways, I like platformers but Crash never appealed to me for some reason. I did download a bunch of the games on PS5 through the free game giveaways, played them for a bit and haven't looked back..

Much like Naughty Dog does with their franchises.

btw good riddance to the Jak and Daxter series. The first game was ok, then they turned Jak into an edgelord and copied elements of GTA.. wtf. This happened around the same time the Ratchet and Clank series was starting out, which was way more innovative. We still get Ratchet and Clank games, the right team won that battle.

 

[Madmick]

So unlike Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry they don't endlessly churn out excessive sequels and reboots/remakes of old ideas, they come up with new ones.
And, unlike Valve, they actually wrap things up-- tie the bow and everything-- on their IPs before they abandon them.


I'm not seeing the downsides, here.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

If they think they've done everything they can with a franchise then I'd rather they moved on rather than churn out endless by the numbers sequels like Ubisoft do.

 

[blaseblase]

Not crash. They sold it a long time ago.

You are correct. Another company owned the rights at the time that later was bought by Activision Blizzard and then Microsoft. That's not the point of this thread though. The point is that we are never getting any sequels to anything Naughty Dog has worked on previously.

 

[blaseblase]

So unlike Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry they don't endlessly churn out excessive sequels and reboots/remakes of old ideas, they come up with new ones.
And, unlike Valvue, they actually wrap things up-- tie the bow and everything-- on their IPs before they abandon them.


I'm not seeing the downsides, here.

They wrapped up one one franchise, Uncharted. I wouldn't say the others got endings.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

So unlike Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry they don't endlessly churn out excessive sequels and reboots/remakes of old ideas, they come up with new ones.
And, unlike Valvue, they actually wrap things up-- tie the bow and everything-- on their IPs before they abandon them.


I'm not seeing the downsides, here.

A couple of weeks ago after Astro Bot came out there was some article about how the game “isn’t a celebration, it’s a graveyard” of Sony’s old, largely abandoned IPs that haven’t had entries in the series since PS1, PS2 or PS3 days. However, I fail to see why Sony needs to go the Nintendo route with all its old IPs. Nintendo will be cranking out Mario, Zelda, Kirby and Metroid games till the sun swallows the Earth. I don’t think Sony needs to or ought to crank out more titles in series they haven’t touched since the PS2 days.

 

[blaseblase]

A couple of weeks ago after Astro Bot came out there was some article about how the game “isn’t a celebration, it’s a graveyard” of Sony’s old, largely abandoned IPs that haven’t had entries in the series since PS1, PS2 or PS3 days. However, I fail to see why Sony needs to go the Nintendo route with all its old IPs. Nintendo will be cranking out Mario, Zelda, Kirby and Metroid games till the sun swallows the Earth. I don’t think Sony needs to or ought to crank out more titles in series they haven’t touched since the PS2 days.

But the reason Astro Bot is getting so much praise is because it's a return to platforming, a genre that Sony has otherwise abandoned but thrives at Nintendo.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

But the reason Astro Bot is getting so much praise is because it's a return to platforming, a genre that Sony has otherwise abandoned but thrives at Nintendo.

So what? Revisiting a largely dormant genre is fine. I’m saying they don’t need to revisit old IPs.

 

[blaseblase]

So what? Revisiting a largely dormant genre is fine. I’m saying they don’t need to revisit old IPs.

Having no relevancy in a genre that they were once fire at suggests they should have. Lol stop pretending you would turn your nose up at a new Jak and Daxter game.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Having no relevancy in a genre that they were once fire at suggests they should have. Lol stop pretending you would turn your nose up at a new Jak and Daxter game.

Astro Bot is a great game. What I’m saying is that it can be its own IP. Sony can make a top tier platformer without resorting to legacy IP. Swapping out Astro Bot and replacing him in the game with Jak and Dexter is unnecessary and wouldn’t improve the game.