It's been more than four years since Naughty Dog closed Nathan Drake's chapter in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and fans have been craving for the next entry in the Uncharted series ever since. While there have been plenty of rumors floating about Sony's San Diego studio working on the next Uncharted game, none of them have been confirmed so far until today.

Sony's San Diego studios' new team has been shrouded in mystery ever since the rumors of a new Uncharted game started floating on the internet. Sony hasn't officially acknowledged the existence of this new team yet, however, eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice the LinkedIn profile of the former PlayStation Studio Head, Michael Mumbauer, who worked as the studio head with a new team-based in San Diego. This new team was apparently working on a brand new AAA action-adventure game, something that sounds vaguely similar to Uncharted.

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Interestingly, a new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier suggests that the San Diego studio was working on The Last of Us remake, whereas Sony Bend Studio was working on a brand new Uncharted game under Naughty Dog's supervision. Unfortunately, it seems some of the lead staff members were unhappy with this new direction Bend Studio was headed towards and parted ways. According to Schreier, "Bend's developers feared they might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, and the studio’s leadership asked to be taken off the Uncharted project."

Fans who were worried about a new Uncharted being developed by some other studio other than Naughty Dog should be at ease, however, Schreier's statement over on Twitter makes the future of this next Uncharted game quite uncertain. If Schreier's statement above is anything to go by, the next Uncharted game might not be in development anymore. Meanwhile, there are plenty of rumors that suggest that Naughty Dog's next game is a new IP codenamed Stray Cross, making it all the more questionable whether Naughty Dog would be able to toggle three projects, including The Last of Us 2 multiplayer, if at all.

As for Sony Bend, the studio is most notably known for developing 2019's Days Gone but has previously worked on Uncharted: Golden Abyss, a PS Vita spinoff of the Uncharted series. With a notable experience working on the Uncharted franchise, Bend Studio seems like a perfect fit to take the series forward. However, given the success the studio has found with Days Gone, it isn't surprising that it would want to work on a sequel or an entirely new IP of its own. Unlike other major first-party releases such as God of War or The Last of Us 2, Days Gone isn't a critically acclaimed title. While the game has found a resounding fan base over the course of years who still plays the game and shares screenshots taken via the game's incredible photo mode on social media, it's possible that it didn't meet Sony's expectations.

Uncharted's future seems cloudy for the time being. But given Sony's commitment to delivering blockbuster first-party games that would be both a commercial and critical success, it's highly unlikely that the company would abandon one of its biggest franchises just like that.

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Source: Bloomberg