The launch of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC is a vital one for Naughty Dog, because it lets us have a good time our previous and introduce a brand new, significant viewers to the world of Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer. But it additionally represents a pivotal second for us, an opportunity to look forward and broaden the way in which we develop video games, all whereas guaranteeing the extent of high quality our viewers expects.
To obtain that, we partnered with Iron Galaxy Studios to deliver two of essentially the most emotional and thrilling Uncharted adventures to a brand new platform with PC-centric quality-of-life options. We’re so thrilled new gamers can expertise these two unimaginable tales, multi function nice bundle. So with its launch, let’s mirror a bit on why this launch is so significant to Naughty Dog, and the way we hope it would proceed to showcase our dedication to delivering unforgettable video games, now to extra gamers than ever.
Bringing Uncharted to PC
While PlayStation 5 stays our main platform, we noticed the potential for bringing our video games to PC as an incredible likelihood to succeed in a brand new large, worldwide viewers. When contemplating what to debut on PC with, we appeared by way of our catalog and determined the attractive, globetrotting tales of the Uncharted sequence felt like a pure match to introduce to gamers all world wide. Now, you might be questioning why we didn’t begin with the unique Uncharted. We felt that, whereas Nathan Drake’s first three adventures from the PlayStation 3 console nonetheless stand the take a look at of time narratively, they’d require a serious overhaul visually to stand-up to trendy PC releases and the expectations gamers could have.
The Uncharted franchise includes standalone adventures that gamers new and previous can bounce into, and so whereas there’s nonetheless unimaginable tales and character improvement in these first three video games, we felt gamers may simply dive into Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and decide up Nathan, Elena, and Sully’s tales. Especially with the introduction of latest characters like Sam Drake, Rafe Adler, and Nadine Ross, A Thief’s End presents a lot to gamers no matter their historical past moving into and out of hassle as Nathan Drake. And Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which can be included within the assortment, presents a brand new playable protagonist in Chloe Frazer. Fans who know the unique trilogy shall be delighted to see her return, however newcomers may have no hassle understanding her fantastic story by beginning with the gathering.
And so, these two video games, each developed on extra trendy {hardware}, and in addition receiving a remaster for the PlayStation 5 console, felt like good candidates to introduce the franchise, and Naughty Dog, to trendy PC gamers. We additionally wished to make sure we had been offering gamers with a worthy worth, and so we bundled each experiences collectively, providing an general suite of PC options and customization choices to go well with as many gamers as doable.
We additionally knew this PC launch wasn’t going to be a one-off. As you might already know, The Last of Us Part I is in improvement for PC following its profitable launch on PlayStation 5, and with this being, ahem, Uncharted territory for us, we knew we now have quite a bit to study bringing our video games to PC. But we had been additionally decided to deliver our cautious consideration for each facet of our video games to this new model. So for the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, we intentionally partnered with Iron Galaxy as a result of we noticed within the studio not solely an incredible understanding of PC improvement we may study from, but in addition a crew that shared a love for our sequence as if it had been their very own. Iron Galaxy provided a associate we may belief would ship a high-quality model of those two Uncharted video games, and with whom we may work intently to higher perceive PC improvement whereas internally staying targeted on present and future tasks and bringing them to PC as effectively.
Lessons realized
The Uncharted sequence’ PC debut is each thrilling and reflective, an opportunity for us to take the teachings realized about providing our video games on a brand new platform, and the expectations and alternatives that associate with it. In studying a lot by way of our companions at Iron Galaxy, we’re in a position to stay up for the way forward for Naughty Dog video games on PC extra excitedly than ever.
First and foremost, we realized, notably by way of our partnership, what it takes to deliver our personal engine to parity to ship on PC {hardware}. Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy are already stunning video games in their very own proper, and we wished to take care of that high quality within the PC launch. But we nonetheless wished to supply flexibility in fine-tuning an expertise PC gamers anticipate, and so it was vital for us to help extra cinematic resolutions in addition to particular PC graphical options. One of the most important visible adjustments for Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is Ultra-Wide Monitor Support*, which lets you expertise the Uncharted sequence’ breathtaking environments like Madagascar, the Western Ghats, and extra like by no means earlier than. But, with our cinematic cutscenes, we examined a number of graphical variations to see what labored greatest. Ultimately, we determined to truly add black bars to our cinematic scenes as a result of, by way of all our iteration and testing, we decided that sustaining the unique inventive intent and design of these bespoke scenes was paramount to the emotional expertise.
The PC area can be one that provides customers a ton of flexibility in {hardware} specs, controls, and extra. As we’ve primarily solely ever needed to concentrate on contemplating one or two system specs up to now, this was merely eye-opening for us. Having primarily developed for console controllers, we needed to study concerning the preferences and adaptability keyboard and mouse controls supply, and we discovered that we needed to re-evaluate sure sport mechanics to suit the brand new enter strategies. For instance, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy contains a tense lock-picking minigame that makes use of a controller’s analog stick and haptic suggestions to assist gamers unlock them. But with out these options inherently on keyboard and mouse, we needed to rethink the appliance of that mechanic.
We additionally wanted to account for the variability of PC {hardware} because it pertains to information loading, and so we reworked our engine so as to add a “safety valve” of kinds to make sure a easy gameplay expertise throughout numerous PC specs. This isn’t one thing we’ve needed to fear about because the Jak and Daxter days, once we added an animation of Jak stumbling if information was loading in too slowly.
Learning all of this by way of our partnership with Iron Galaxy Studios solely helps to bolster Naughty Dog’s understanding of PC improvement, and permit us to ship the standard you anticipate in our future releases. We’re excited to offer The Last of Us Part I on PC sooner or later, and know that, shifting ahead, including PC improvement to the way in which we develop video games, which by no means undermines the significance of PlayStation 5 as our main platform, will proceed to profit our crew in the long term. As Naughty Dog has come to higher perceive hybrid and work-from-home improvement over the previous couple of years, PC improvement presents our crew flexibility in how, when, and the place our video games are created. Much like gamers can take pleasure in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC from a wide range of PC builds, our builders can work on PC iterations on numerous items of {hardware} from house or within the workplace.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection’s PC launch is a transformative pivot level for Naughty Dog. We not solely have one other likelihood to have a good time our beloved franchise but in addition introduce it to so many new gamers. In doing so, we set the stage for Naughty Dog to ship high-quality video games on PlayStation 5, with the choice of a PC launch as effectively, with an understanding of the best way to cater to the totally different wants of each audiences now and sooner or later.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection has created an incredible basis of know-how and learnings that can solely profit our future improvement. We’re grateful to our companions at Iron Galaxy Studios, and to our followers new and previous, as we attain this vital milestone for Naughty Dog.
*Compatible PC and show gadget required.
