Naughty Dog has described the transition to next-generation formats as a “double-edged sword,” noting the jump from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3 was a dark period for the company.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells said that although there’s always excitement to be had when embracing new machines, the process of adopting new hardware can be an arduous business.
"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,” said Wells.
"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."
He went on to say that the transition 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".
"It’s tough and we’re definitely walking into it with open eyes,” he added.
Elsewhere, partner in crime Christophe Balestra labelled the jump to next-gen “terrifying,” stating, "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!"
He also touched on the status of the Uncharted development team, revealing nothing has been set in stone for the future of the series at present.
"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,” said Balestra.
"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."
"Next-gen, current-gen – that’s totally in the air".