Naughty Dog, the developer behind the "Uncharted Series" and the upcoming "The Last of Us," has stated their intention to keep the proprietary engine that has created those PlayStation 3 titles for developing PlayStation 4 games as well. This is so that the developer can avoid the "turmoil" that comes with switching consoles, says Bruce Straley, the game director for The Last of Us to Digital Spy:
"We learned a big lesson coming from PS2 to PS3...There was a lot of hype over what [PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360] was going to be. It was all going to be like movies, like a pre-rendered cutscene-style fidelity.That turned out not to be true...What we're able to do now is pretty damn close, but it took Naughty Dog four games to get there--one of the top developers in the industry with some on the most amazing scientists working in our programming department. We scrapped everything at the beginning of Uncharted 1, and we had a perfectly good engine with the Jak & Daxter franchise," Straley said.
This time around, Naughty Dog intends to not scrap everything and start over, but rather port their current engine and improve it using the next-gen technology available with the upcoming consoles. This should lead to an easier transition between consoles than the previous jump.
"As we move into development into next-gen, we want to take our current engine, port it immediately over as is and say, 'Okay, we have a great AI system, we have a good rendering system,'" Straley said.
Now with the experience in place to handle the transition smoothly, Straley believes that Naughty Dog will be able to hit the ground running when it comes time for them to release next-gen games.
"It's one of those things that you learn in development...We've gained something from this experience, and now we want to apply it moving into next gen," he said.
"God of War: Ascension" owners can unlock the demo for "The Last of Us" today, which will be launched on June 14 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
