‘Uncharted 6’ PS4 Ideas Discussed In Naughty Dog Interview: Nathan Drake’s Story Is Over On PlayStation 4

When it comes to future games for the PS4, Uncharted 6 probably tops the wish list charts, especially after the fifth game, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, brought the game series back to life with new characters. The new adventure is coming to PS4 on August 22, 2017, and it focuses on treasure hunter Chloe Frazer from Among Thieves and Nadine Ross from the last PlayStation 4 game. But what does game developer Naughty Dog have planned for the long term?

Back in 2016, creative director Neil Druckmann said that the Uncharted PS4 series could easily live on without Naughty Dog at the helm. According to GamesRadar, Druckmann would be “excited” if new developers made a great game based on the premise. The game developer would love to play an Uncharted game he had not worked on himself since “it’d be a lot of fun.” At the same time, Naughty Dog would still provide oversight as the creators of the franchise since they’d “want to make sure they get the essence of it right.”

For those who have played and finished Uncharted 4, it was not surprising that Nathan Drake did not return for the fifth outing. The story of A Thief’s End was intended to give closure to the Drake family and even showed their future. The hard part for Naughty Dog was transitioning to a new main character.

In a recent interview with Shaun Escayg of Naughty Dog, the creative director admitted that they pitched Uncharted: The Lost Legacy as Chloe’s story, but to them, it felt centered around Nadine at first.

“A lot of that had to do with the fact that we didn’t really know Chloe and we hadn’t really found her story as of yet. Through the course of development it became quite clear that this was Chloe’s story, and it was quite clear that Nadine would help bring that story out,” Escayg said, according to DualShockers. “Part of Naughty Dog’s storytelling is relationships, how they affect each other, how they get in conflict, how they bond, is what brings out the best and worst of these characters. We get to see a lot more insight into them.”

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy recently went gold, and the Naughty Dog team is going on vacation. The team had not originally intended to create a full game in a single year, and now they need a long break. Escayg told Red Bull that there are no immediate plans for a new Uncharted sequel, but he still left the door wide open for Uncharted 6 with his other comments.

“This world is huge, the stories are vast, the cast is vast, and there could be many stories told in this world,” he said.

The creative director said the development team did not deliberately try to give gamers a sense of closure, nor were they trying to “convey the idea that this word isn’t finished yet.” Instead, the goal was to see the Uncharted world as a whole from a different perspective. Their vision was to convey “Chloe and Nadine’s story and that’s it.” The only character “not on the table” was Nathan Drake.

It’s possible that the Uncharted 6 story and its location could come out of the brainstorming that Naughty Dog did for developing the fifth game. Escayg says they had “many stories on the table” and tried many combinations of characters, including “Sully, Sully and Chloe, Sully and Sam, Cutter and Chloe… We just kept moving around the pieces. We knew we wanted to do Chloe once we nailed her.”

In an interview with GamesBeat, Naughty Dog writer Josh Scherr said that once they realized they were “really wrapping up Nathan Drake’s story in a nice neat bow,” they began figuring out what other stories they wanted to tell and what other characters they wanted to explore. Because of all the options available, this mindset could carry on to Uncharted 6 rather than make the new focus all about Chloe.

“One fun thing about the series, and about the genre in general, is that we’re drawing from the idea of this whole world out there of rogues and thieves and treasure hunters and all these things they do with and against each other,” Scherr said. “Potentially we could spin this off.”

That’s not to say Naughty Dog won’t consider doing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy 2 instead of an Uncharted 6 focused on other characters. When asked about the possibility, all Scherr would say is that “it’s really up to the fans. It’s not really up to us.”

Just like with Escayg, the Naughty Dog writer made a point to say that there are no plans for a PS4 Uncharted 6 game at this time. Right now, the team is focused on releasing the current Uncharted game, finishing Last of Us Part 2, and then getting some rest. Hopefully, after the Naughty Dog team is well-rested from vacation, they can start thinking again of adventure.

[Featured Image by Naughty Dog]