Remember when Naughty Dog used to make New Games

[Dr Bass]

There's a big difference: The PS5 generation is the most successful one for Sony, while the PS3 one was the least successful one.

Being specific to ND, their most successful game ever in sales and awards was TLOU2, released just before the PS5 release. They now have way more workers they ever had, and for the first time they now have been working on 3 new games at the same time (plus possible additional secondary projects like ports/remakes/remasters/movie or tv show adaptations).

TLOU2 was released aprox. 3 years and a half ago, and nowadays AAA games take 5-9 years to be developed. Assuming they took a few months after TLOU2 release to start their next SP game (ignoring TLOU Online), then it would be aprox. 2-7 years away from release, so I wouldn't expect it to be shown this or next year. Specially to avoid something like with TLOU Online, when they shown early a game that later got cancelled.

I'd bet this time won't announce their next game until pretty close to the game release, maximum a year before releasing it. Which would mean they'd announce it somewhere around 2025-2030. Their other SP game apparently started in H1 2023, meaning pretty likely they'd announce it somewhere around 2027-2032.

What game that’s well managed takes nine years to make?

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Being specific to ND, their most successful game ever in sales and awards was TLOU2, released just before the PS5 release.

In awards, yes. In sales, not even a little bit.
2 years after release it had sold less than half of Spider-Man, God of War 2018 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart WAS profitable

Do we know where it sold the most

icon-era.com

Update

And considering the fact that >40% of those 10 million sales were pre-orders (i.e. leap of faith purchases taken from goodwill gained over the 1st game), there should be very little doubt that TLoU2 sold as much as Sony had hoped.

 

[Yurinka]

What game that’s well managed takes nine years to make?

Big ass AAA games requiring a ton of work/time to be made or having delays, specially with a pandemic in the middle, don't imply bad management.

It just means huge projects require huge development times.

In awards, yes. In sales, not even a little bit.

SIE's SVP & head of global marketing: "We’re delighted to report that The Last of Us Part II is now the fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive ever".

In 2020 TLOU2 broke sales records, in 2022 they did with GoWR, in 2023 with Spider-Man 2 and in 2024 with -minimum- Helldivers 2.

And considering the fact that >40% of those 10 million sales were pre-orders (i.e. leap of faith purchases taken from goodwill gained over the 1st game), there should be very little doubt that TLoU2 sold as much as Sony had hoped.

Any source for this >40%? Why not to say 40000% instead?

 

[Johnic]

This can't be serious. Just LOL if true.

 

[voke]

They make top end games. It takes more than a couple years to achieve that. They'll be ready to melt our eyes 2026-2027 for sure.

Those of you blaming Sony management, you have no real understanding on how game development works.

 

[Box]

They make top end games. It takes more than a couple years to achieve that. They'll be ready to melt our eyes 2026-2027 for sure.

Those of you blaming Sony management, you have no real understanding on how game development works.

So why has Insomniac been able to release 3 AAA games in the same timeframe?

 

[voke]

So why has Insomniac been able to release 3 AAA games in the same timeframe?

Insomniac is built different

 

[Yurinka]

So why has Insomniac been able to release 3 AAA games in the same timeframe?

Because since a ton of years before that timeframe, unlike the other studios, Insomniac had way more people and they were always working in 3/4 games at the same time, while most of the other teams only did work on a single game at the same time.

Only with Jimbo and Hermen many of the other teams also got 2, 3 or even 4 teams at the same time working on multiple games at the same time. And these new times will need the average time to develop AAA games, which aren't developed in under a year because we are not in the PS1 generation, or in 2 or 3 like in the PS3 generation, games are way bigger and way more complex than back then.

Insomniac doesn't have any magic formula, they aren't superhuman. They only had more people/teams to work in more games at the same time than the other ones.

 

[Yobo]

Nobody would care if Naughty Dog did a million remasters if they showed what they were working on

 

[Vertigo]

Insomniac was able to iterate efficiently and reuse and update assets and tech. Their approach to the marvel universe is not so much different than GAAS. It’s a consistent content pipeline that they clearly have a handle on.

Naughty Dog definitely “lost time” by cancelling TLOU Online even if I agree with the their logic behind their decision.

I doubt anyone at Sony or Naughty Dog is happy about this but shit happens. The remasters and upgrades are probably to also make up for lost revenues with falling behind schedule. How they move forward, if the right course correction… could be worth it. To me that’s a trust issue and I mostly trust Sony to handle stuff accordingly.