The Creative Director of Naughty Dog, Shaun Escayg, posted a picture to their Instagram account, leading many fans of the company to believe the studio is building up to a New Uncharted title. The Uncharted series last saw release with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in 2017. a spin-off game originally concieved as a DLC for 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End before becoming its own thing. Both games were eventually released together for PS5 and PC as part of the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection in 2022, with the franchise lacking a new entry for almost a decade. Escayg served as co-director of A Thief’s End.
The picture in question is of a cannon on a pretty clear day, overlooking a city in Trinidad & Tobago, with the caption Research. As spotted by Kotaku, Escayg’s picture was specifically taken at Fort George, with the location being in line with the settings of previous entries, such as the escape from a prison in Panama that set Uncharted 4 in motion.
There is the possibility that there is no meaning behind this picture, but given Naughty Dog’s having a strong franchise known for tropical settings, and the cryptic one-word post, it makes sense that fans are reading into it. We do know Escayg is working on something, with rumors suggesting the studio has multiple single-player titles in development. Currently, the only title we have confirmation on is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a new IP that was announced during the Video Game Awards and is possibly aiming for a 2027 release, though nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Other suggestions have stated that a third Last of Us title is in the works.
Most likely, any confirmation of a new Uncharted title will wait until after Intergalactic releases, and even then, we might need to wait a while, as this picture suggests what fans think: the title is in the planning stages at best. Triple A titles continue to have both increasing costs and development cycles, with the last few Naughty Dog games taking 6-7 years to see release.
If another Uncharted game is in development, it would be interesting to see what route they go. The previous game, which had a subtitle implying that the story would end there (slight spoilers), saw protagonist Nathan Drake settle down with his love interest, Elena Fisher, with the two having a child named Cassie, who only appears to be 10-14 in the epilogue. There was some suggestion at the time that this was meant as a passing of the torch to a new lead, similar to Ellie in The Last of Us Part II, but nothing has come of that yet.
Given the decade hiatus and long development cycle, Cassie could be realistically in her mid to late 20s by the next adventure, making her an ideal candidate to take the helm. The series could also go the prequel route, having previously had one prequel on the PS Vita named Uncharted: Golden Abyss, though this was not developed by Naughty Dog, but by Bend Studio, who are best known for Days Gone.
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