Uncharted 4 was released to worldwide acclaim and has sold tens of millions of copies. It’s another bona fide great in one of gaming’s most revered series, but a former Naughty Dog dev claims that the game’s initial build was so badly received that funding was nearly pulled for it.
Leading up to Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog had comfortably cemented the franchise as one of PlayStation’s marquee IPs. Uncharted 4 was the series’ debut on the PS4, and it ended up being a technical marvel. According to a former Naughty Dog dev, this was far from the case at first.
Uncharted 4 Implied To Have ‘Sucked’ And Had To Be Remade
Gabriel Betancourt has worked for Monarch Games Inc. for the last seven years, primarily focusing on Technical, Lighting, Game Design, and App Development.
But if we turn back the clock, he worked for Naughty Dog between July 2012 and February 2019.
His work includes The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part 2, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, The Last of Us: Left Behind DLC, and crucially, Uncharted 4.
In an interview with KIWI TALKZ, Betancourt opened up on (we believe) Uncharted 4’s early days of development:
“I remember this one game prototype, and I won’t say which one, but there was a project that had been in production for two and a half years almost three, and corporate had said ‘we’re having questions about this.’ The franchise was successful up until that point, there was no reason to question that this thing would be successful.
But at that time, the leader was surrounded by people who were always saying yes, and they were living in the glory of their success going onto their fourth project, and now they’re delivering this deadline for a demo, and I think they just took it for granted. We’ve already had success before, we’re gonna have it again, we’ve done this three of four times already, so we’re just gonna be this great thing.
One of the directors from another team was asked to weigh in, and I wasn’t there, I only heard the story, and that director walked in, in the room full of all these people, he picked up the controller, and he said to everyone: ‘This game sucks’.
Betancourt explained that this left the entire room in shock, the project’s director (presumably Amy Hennig) was angry, and when someone working on the game outed the comments as ‘rude,’ the other director responded:
“No, but the game sucks, there’s no objectives, it’s hard to follow what’s going on, the controls are clunky, this isn’t like you guys, this isn’t what we delivered in the past. In the meeting, people walked out of there really upset. This director, I’m surprised he had the gaul to say something like that.”
Things didn’t stop there, though, as Betancourt revealed that higher-ups looked at the project, and at first, they were continuing the game’s development, and would ‘ignore the naysayer.’ But then he added that corporate took things further:
You guys are in trouble. We’re gonna pull funding from this if you guys don’t fix this. As a result, the director of that project was pulled away, even thought they had been successful, and the naysayer, along with two others, were put in to help fix it, and then game had to be redone. Then, two and a half to three years later, so five to six years total production, the game became a success.
Now, Uncharted 4 is never referenced at any point in this story; however, based on the events and the timeline, it’s clear that the game is Uncharted 4. During Betancourt’s time at Naughty Dog, the only series to get a fourth main entry was Uncharted.
Crash Team Racing (which was ND’s fourth Crash game) was well before his employment with the company, and Jak X—which was technically the fourth game in the franchise—was also before the developer arrived. Furthermore, Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog in 2014, which was roughly two to three years before Uncharted 4’s release.
Everything clearly points to Uncharted 4 being the game, and it’s unbelievable to think that Uncharted 4 was going to be shelved at one point!
This is one of the wilder stories we’ve heard recently. What do you make of it? Are you glad things were turned around? Let us know through the Insider Gaming Discord.
Check out Shuhei Yoshida saying he was removed as PlayStation President because he ‘Didn’t Listen’ to Jim Ryan for more news.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
More from Andrew Highton
Uncharted 4 was the last game no one wanted more. It does not need to continue and 4 was a mixed bag for people the spin-off as well. But Naughty Dog continues to make slop. Not sure how 5 can come soon I mean this gen is done. These games all feel like things of a time gone that no one cares about thanks to how bad these companies and devs have gotten catering to old mentally stunted 40 year olds and their egos and want for control.