The last thing Naughty Dog released was in 2024, and it was the developer's The Last of Us Part II Remastered. To the former The Last of Us and Uncharted series' designer Benson Russell, that's a problem. Now a game development consultant, Russell recommends his former employer spare its next game from the prolonged development period it's accustomed to.
Naughty Dog's upcoming sci-fi adventure Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has now been in production for six years. While the game doesn't yet have a release date, by the time it finally launches, we could be trudging toward the PS6 generation – which is why Russell tells FRVR in a new interview he thinks Naughty Dog's lethargic release calendar is "absolutely not" sustainable. He says about the developer, "They're one of the key stakeholders that get PlayStation[s] sold, right? So, when you think about it, they have not put an original IP out on this platform. The only thing they've done is The Last of Us [Remake]."