Naughty Dog: move to next-gen is “terrifying”

Transition marked studio's "darkest days".

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As talk grows of developers already working on PlayStation 4 titles, Naughty Dog has revealed its fears over the “difficult” transition to next-gen hardware.

Speaking to Eurogamer, studio co-president Evan Wells called the move a “double-edged sword”, explaining that: “The geek inside you is always excited about a shiny new toy, but then the practicality of it starts to set in: this is going to be a lot of hard work.

“When you’re going to new technology, every day is a slog, progress is slow and it really takes a different kind of attitude and mentality to get through that kind of push and it’s not right for everybody.”

Wells explained that the switch from PS2 to PS3 was “the period that Naughty Dog had its darkest days and we lost people on a weekly basis – people just couldn’t get through it”.

He continued: “It’s tough and we’re definitely walking into it with open eyes.”

Fellow co-president Christophe Balestra described the prospect of moving to new hardware as “terrifying”, adding: “We made some mistakes with our move from PS2 to PS3 and we won’t make those again. I guess we’ve done it a couple of times!”

The studio last week lifted the lid on upcoming PS3 exclusive, The Last Of Us, which is being worked on by a previously secret second team.

As for the Uncharted team, Balestra said: “Right now they’re not working that much. Some of them are working mainly on DLC for multiplayer, and a lot of them are on vacation.

“I think the team’s going to regroup and we’re going to figure out what’s going to be the next move is for that team.”

Wells added: “Next-gen, current-gen – that’s totally in the air”.

A tenner says Uncharted 4 for PlayStation 4.


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