There's no more Uncharted games planned after the release of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, says Naughty Dog Creative Director Shaun Escayg. In an interview with Red Bull, Escayg goes into detail regarding his side-story's development and how The Lost Legacy stands apart from the main franchise.

But while he is forthcoming about this new adventure, Escayg isn't willing to think about the franchise's future right now. He says that for now Uncharted is going on hiatus, but is willing to admit that there's certainly a possibility of it returning.

Most of Naughty Dog has shifted over to developing the studio's next major game, The Last of Us 2, though there are a lot of people helping wrap up Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Escayg says his team is dreadfully in need of a vacation, not fully aware how large the scope of the project would grow when it initially began development:

"I don’t think anyone at Naughty Dog wants to do another full game in a year. It was intense, but the team, they were really passionate about doing this game and that’s why it succeeded. If we knew now that we were making that full game in a year, we probably would have hesitated. But we were already invested from the moment we pitched it and it was a snowball after that."

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy won't launch until August 22, so Escayg's work isn't done quite yet. But with just a month left, no one is going to blame him or his team for envisioning their forthcoming vacations at this point.

With Uncharted: The Lost Legacy's release will come questions, though. This will be the first time the franchise has stepped out of Nate's shoes and opened a wider Uncharted universe up to players. And Naughty Dog chose to save this until after the series' concluding episode, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. It's only natural that the community wonders what's coming next in the Uncharted franchise, because Naughty Dog has made it absolutely clear there's more story to tell with or without Nathan Drake.

Escayg is unwilling to even consider the possibility of another game for now, noting another game is unlikely at this point. Even he can't deny the possibility, however:

"We have no immediate plans [for another Uncharted game]. But if there’s anything this game proves that this world is beyond Nathan Drake, there’s other cast, other characters – you’ve got quite a vast amount of cast to pull from in the future if you so wanted."

A Sam and Sully adventure seems like the obvious choice for expanding the Uncharted universe even further, if not more Chloe and Nadine. And there's a certain character introduced towards the end of Uncharted 4 that many fans would absolutely love to get to know better.

As exciting as more Uncharted in the future may be, there's another option that might be even more exciting. After The Last of Us 2 launches, Naughty Dog's future will, for the first time in a long while, be entirely up in the air. Whatever the future holds for Naughty Dog, the studio can rest easy knowing its fans will be excited no matter the project.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy launches exclusively on PlayStation 4 starting August 22.

Source: Red Bull