With the release of the PlayStation 5, fans are turning their eyes towards two of Sony's most applauded studios: Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica. What shapes their next projects on this new generation of console has everyone's attentions. While God of War: Ragnarok, a sequel to 2018's God of War, has already been revealed, and Naughty Dog would eventually pick up Ellie's story from The Last Of Us 2, the thing that intrigues many is the possibility of new IPs from these studios.
Neither Naughty Dog nor Sony Santa Monica has confirmed that they are working on brand new IPs, although there have been few rumors and leaks that suggest otherwise. A January 2020 leak suggested that Santa Monica's next game is called Legendz and that it would be a PS5 launch title. While the latter turned out to be false, the prior could still be true. Since then, no other leaks or rumors have happened that could provide more insight into what Legendz is. As for Naughty Dog's next IP, that's a different story altogether.
Sony PS5 Rumors and Leaks
The first of the few rumors about Naughty Dog's next emerged in late 2018. According to content creator Daniel Ritchman, Naughty Dog was casting for a brand new project in LA. Furthermore, he revealed that the lead, or one of the leads, is supposedly a Black/African American male between the age of 40s to 60s. A more concrete rumor surfaced back in July 2020 that revealed the working title for the game, its protagonists, and its premise.
According to it, Naughty Dog's next IP is code-named Stray's Cross, a first-person action-adventure game set in a steampunk universe. Similar to The Last of Us 2, the game will allegedly feature two protagonists, a former female scientist searching for answers and a wanted criminal man who was formerly a construction worker. It's apparently an end-of-the-world story where the two protagonists work together to find a way out of this precarious situation.
What We Do Know
While such a direction seems like a feasible move for a studio that has been switching back and forth between two of its established franchises, it's important to acknowledge that these are still wild rumors. Even though a sci-fi game from Naughty Dog would feel right at home, given how Neil Druckmann has previously expressed his desire to make a Half-Life and Cowboy Bebop game, all of this should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
With The Last of Us 2, Naughty Dog proved that its willing to evolve how it tells its stories. Its dual protagonists' formulae fared well for the game and it would be interesting to see how the studio elevates this experience in its future projects. However, Naughty Dog's willingness to create a new IP, that too in an entirely different genre remains to be seen. Building a new IP from scratch or rebooting an existing franchise could be a painstakingly long process. As such, even if a project like Stray's Cross is in development, it might as well be years away from its release, given how The Last of Us 2 shipped just a year ago.
At this point in time, Stray's Cross is just an enigma like Legendz, but with a little more context. It's possible that nothing comes from either of these, with both being the result of rumors filling in empty space. But, with June right around the corner, it would be interesting to see if Naughty Dog and Santa Monica studio would have anything new to announce other than what's already out on the table.
No new Naughty Dog IP has been announced.