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It sure sounds like a former Naughty Dog developer just revealed a few new details about the scrapped version of Uncharted 4 that never came to be, as he discusses a game prototype that corporate allegedly threatened to pull funding from if the team didn't improve things.
The version of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End that we know – the one that made it to store shelves – was directed by The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, but this wasn't always the case. Uncharted series creator Amy Hennig – who also served as director on Uncharted 1-3 – was previously at the helm for this one, too, but in March 2014, it was reported that she was no longer at Naughty Dog.
And this apparently wasn't early into the game's production. Nathan Drake actor Nolan North previously revealed: "We had shot Uncharted 4 with Amy Hennig for about seven months. We were well into the game." What's more, following her departure, Naughty Dog reportedly "got rid of everything we did."
Now, speaking in an interview with Reece "Kiwi Talkz" Reilly (below), it sounds like former Naughty Dog senior lighting artist Gabriel Betancourt has given more background on the situation. It's important to point out that he doesn't call out the project by name, nor does he name any of the people involved in his story, but the details seem to line up – plus, the artist himself is credited on both Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy.
"I remember this one game prototype, and I won't say which one, but there was a project that had been in production for two and a half years, almost three, and corporate had basically said, 'We're having questions about this,'" he begins. "And the franchise was successful up until that point. There was no reason to question this thing would be successful. But, at that time, the leader was surrounded by people who were always saying yes, and they were living in the glory of their success going onto their fourth project."
However, things apparently changed when a director from another team "was asked to weigh in" on the game. Betancourt recalls a story as he heard it (as he wasn't personally present) from when "that director walked in, in the room full of all these people. He picked up the controller, and he said to everyone, 'This game sucks.'"
Betancourt describes: "Everyone was quiet. People were flustered. The director of that project was angry, and you could just, you know, from what I understand, you could cut the tension in that room with a knife. And then somebody said, you know, 'That's really rude of you to say something like that.' And the director fired back, he said, 'No, but the game sucks. There's no objectives, it's hard to follow what's going on, the controls are clunky. This isn't like you guys. This isn't what we delivered in the past.'"
As you can imagine, folks apparently walked out of the meeting "really upset." However, that's not where things ended.
"Corporate looked at it and they said, 'You guys are in trouble. We're going to pull funding from this if you guys don't fix this,'" Betancourt says. "And as a result, the director of that project was pulled away – even though they had been successful – and the naysayer along with two others were put in to help fix it, and then the game had to be redone. But then, two and a half, three years later – so going on five to six years total of production – the game became a success."
Betancourt says something he "appreciated about Naughty Dog" was the philosophy that "there was a respect more for truth and honesty," even if that truth could sound "rude." Even so, he thinks that "some people did take that too far," noting that "there's got to be a way to deliver bad news in a good way."
Obviously, it's worth taking Betancourt's story with a pinch of salt – while it seems pretty likely that Uncharted 4 is the game he's referring to, by his own admission, he wasn't there when this other director supposedly criticized the project. What's more, it should be noted that Naughty Dog previously denied reports that Hennig had been forced out by Druckmann and Straley, saying they "were NOT involved in what transpired."
Even so, Betancourt offers an interesting peek into the inner workings of Naughty Dog, where truth apparently reigns supreme, even if it hurts.
While you're here, be sure to take a look at our ranking of the best Uncharted games.
