A former Naughty Dog developer recently shared that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End nearly got canceled early in production. Despite now being considered one of the studio’s best games, initial reactions to the first build were negative. The game only survived thanks to a major overhaul during development.
It’s been a decade since the last Uncharted game came out, but there’s growing buzz about the future of the series. Naughty Dog is currently developing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and reports suggest they’re also working on a new Uncharted project. This could be a remake of the original game, a fifth installment, or even both. While these reports haven’t been officially confirmed, interest in the Uncharted series is definitely increasing, and we’re learning more about the existing games.
Naughty Dog Threatened to Pull Uncharted 4’s Funding Nearly 3 Years into Development
I was listening to the Kiwi Talkz podcast, and former Naughty Dog artist Gabriel Betancourt shared a crazy story about the development of Uncharted 4. Apparently, the game almost got completely scrapped! He said a director from a different team walked into a meeting and bluntly told everyone the game “sucked.” They were over two and a half years into development at that point and the team initially tried to just keep going, but then management backed up the criticism and threatened to pull the funding if they didn’t make major changes. That’s actually why the original director ended up leaving the project, and why Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley – the guys behind The Last of Us – came on board to save the day.
While Naughty Dog successfully finished Uncharted 4, not all of their projects have had the same fate. A former employee recently shared that a standalone Last of Us multiplayer game was almost finished – about 80% complete – before being cancelled. This happened because Naughty Dog had to choose between that game and a new project called Intergalactic due to budget changes. Luckily, Uncharted: A Thief’s End wasn’t scrapped. However, according to Betancourt, finishing it was difficult. It required strong criticism from both company executives and the game’s director, along with a shift in leadership, to push the team beyond the success of previous Uncharted games and deliver the Uncharted 4 that fans enjoy today.
Betancourt didn’t explicitly state which game he was referring to, but everything suggests it was Uncharted 4. He mentioned it was the fourth installment in a series, and A Thief’s End is the only fourth game Naughty Dog released while he was there. The story also matches what happened with the game’s development – the original director was replaced by two others (Druckmann and Straley), and the five-year development timeframe fits the details he shared.
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Even though the game’s development was troubled, it became one of the studio’s greatest achievements. With a score of 93 on Metacritic, Uncharted 4 ranks among Naughty Dog’s highest-rated games – a remarkable accomplishment for such a well-respected developer. It’s hard to say how much the game changed after leaders initially deemed the original version unacceptable, or if it would have been as successful without the fresh start. Ultimately, despite a difficult period, the game was a success.
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2026-04-21 17:07