by William D'Angelo
Naughty Dog is currently developing a remake of the popular PlayStation title, The Last of Us, for the PlayStation 5, according to a Bloomberg report.
The remake was originally in development Sony's Visual Arts Service Group before it was moved to the original creator of the series. Michael Mumbauer took over Visual Arts Service Group in 2007 and recruited a team of about 30 developers. Sony has never acknowledged Visual Arts Service Group existed, who has been a support studio helping out on other projects.
Eight people familiar with the situation said that the group's leadership has mainly disbanded now that the development of The Last of Us remake has moved to Naughty Dog. Mumbauer and several others have left Sony altogether.
"At the time, Naughty Dog was in the thick of development on the sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which would introduce higher-fidelity graphics and new gameplay features," reads the report. "If Mumbauer’s crew remade the first game to have a similar look and feel, the two games could be packaged together for the PlayStation 5.
"In theory, this would be a less expensive proposition than remaking Uncharted, since The Last of Us was more modern and wouldn’t require too many gameplay overhauls. Then, once Mumbauer’s group had established itself, it could go on to remake the first Uncharted game and other titles down the road."
Sony has taken a more conservative approach to develop games for the PlayStation 5 with a focus on its more successful studios such as Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games. There has been more of a focus on high-profile AAA releases by Sony's first-party studios. This includes recent hits like The Last of Us Part II, God of War, and Ghost of Tsushima.
Sony recently reorganized one of its development offices in Japan, which has lead to several people leaving the company who worked on smaller titles like Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf. Sony no longer has an interest in producing smaller titles that are only successful in Japan.
Sony Bend, who released Days Gone in 2019, tried to pitch a sequel to the game. It was rejected as the first game despite making a profit wasn't popular enough.
One team at Sony Bend is now assisting Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game, while another team is working on a new Uncharted game with supervision from Naughty Dog. Bend's developers worried it might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, and leadership at the studio asked to be taken off the new Uncharted game. Sony agreed and the studio is now working on a new game.
The report also mentions how Sony barely put any money into marketing Dreams, despite it being developed by first-party studio Media Molecule. The report says Sony might have missed out on having its own version of Roblox.
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