Why Triple-A Games Haven't Moved On From Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Published May 15, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Jade King is Lead Features Editor at The Gamer and University of Sussex journalism graduate with 10+ years covering the video game industry. She has been seen in outlets such as Trusted Reviews, Kotaku UK, VICE, and more over the years covering everything from the latest releases to major events to in-depth interviews. She loves nothing more than speaking with devs, creatives, voice actors, and so many others about the passion behind their craft and bringing that into the hearts of readers everywhere. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End celebrated its tenth anniversary this past weekend, but feels like it could have launched yesterday and still have the same impact. This fact is testament to its stellar visuals, incredible action set pieces, and memorable characters, alongside being a mammoth indictment of triple-A video games. That so much time has passed since Naughty Dog hurled this masterpiece out into the world, and it has only released a single game since (alongside some remasters) is laughably depressing to think about. The Last of Us Part 2 is another masterful game — arguably the studio’s best — but its deep focus on narrative prestige and unparalleled graphics partnered with PlayStation’s model for platform exclusives means there is little or no room to truly experiment. We know what kinds of experiences to expect from Naughty Dog now, and after Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet launches next year and pushes boundaries all over again, I wonder how long it’ll be until another game from the developer comes along. Less than five years? Less than ten? Honestly, who knows. Why Uncharted 4 Is Still An Unparalleled Masterpiece The history of Uncharted 4 is complicated. Much like the original trio of games for the PS3, this fourth installment began life under the leadership of creative director Amy Hennig. But somewhere along the way, due to failing to meet internal milestones or the game not quite living up to quality standards, she was ousted from the role and replaced by Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann. A recent deep dive offers a comprehensive look at this version of the game, which by all accounts was pretty far along until the project was rebooted under brand-new leadership. Fresh off The Last of Us, it was no surprise to see Druckmann and Straley give Uncharted 4 a far more serious and introspective tone than anything that had come before. The tongue-in-cheek escapades of treasure hunter Nathan Drake were replaced by an older version of our beloved hero working a banal job in a by-the-numbers marriage where both of them wanted so badly to recapture their glory days. So when Samuel Drake comes back into Nate’s world and offers him one last major score, he’d be a fool to say no. While the game is still filled with action-packed sequences that defy the laws of physics more times than you can count, it all plays out on the foundation of an emotional story that pushes these characters to unexpected new places. Their character arcs, inner turmoil, and a more mature tone have become the bedrock of now expectant narrative prestige that puts a dramatic narrative and simplistic gameplay right at the forefront. When people make little jokes about the current state of triple-A gaming, most of them wouldn’t be possible without Nathan Drake leading the charge. Characters that refuse to let you solve puzzles by yourself and hint at the solution with harsh lines of dialogue? Uncharted. Combat sequences that look thrilling yet at a certain point kinda play themselves? Uncharted. Tiny inconsequential details and mechanics that require hundreds of hours of dev power but don’t really impact much beyond proving it can be done? Uncharted. I know The Last of Us pushed these qualities to their dramatic extremes, with God of War following shortly afterward with a new take on triple-A simplicity, but the current landscape simply wouldn’t be the same without Uncharted. What began as a masculine take on Tomb Raider, which itself was a subversive spin on Indiana Jones, slowly became the nucleus for every single design trope that defines the blockbuster space. Back in 2016, A Thief’s End felt like a bold new direction for not only the series, but action games of its ilk in general. They could not only be unrivalled in set piece design and world scale, but also character dynamics and storytelling that was unafraid to subvert the heroes we had spent the past console generation falling in love with. Unfortunately, it was also an experience plagued by release date delays and crunch during development because of the amount of work the team was expected to do in such a short space of time. It’s no surprise that the turnover at Naughty Dog was so high once it shipped. It doesn’t only demand high levels of excellence, but also a lack of work/life balance. And Why We Will Never See Another Game Quite Like It Taking into account the shift in leadership during development, Uncharted 4 took five years to make. The Last of Us Part 2 — also directed by Druckmann — released in 2020, roughly four years after Nathan Drake’s swansong. Factions 2, initially planned to be packaged with The Last of Us Part 2, was siphoned off before release and cancelled, unfinished, in late 2023. Fast-forward to 2026 and the studio’s output consists of nothing more than remasters and releases. Once Intergalactic ships, and if it doesn’t end up getting delayed past its predicted 2027 launch window, it will have been seven long years since we last played a new game from the studio. Lost Legacy arrived in 2017, which began life as a piece of downloadable content before expanding into a fully-fledged release. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End felt like the beginning of a new normal for triple-A video games as major releases from beloved studios shifted from multiple releases per console cycle to just one title. In the case of Naughty Dog, that will be Intergalactic. For Sucker Punch, that will likely be the sequel to Ghost of Yotei, while I highly doubt Guerrilla is going to deliver the third Horizon until the PS6 rolls around. Games of this scale and sophistication take too long and cost too much to make nowadays, leading us to a point of self-inflicted unsustainability where the only solution is to tear it all down and start again or use generative AI to speed up the process and potentially cost human workers their jobs as a consequence. Players are bummed that the PS5 generation has been so devoid of games, but if any shortcuts were taken or big games didn’t live up to unrealistic expectations, there would be hell to pay. There is no winning in this situation that Sony and other platform holders have allowed to unfold. I’m not saying Uncharted 4 is to blame for this new status quo we find ourselves in. It’s one of the greatest action games ever made and one of my favourites of all time. Naughty Dog struck gold with this action adventure and put itself on the map all over again. The wider question I’m asking is whether the time and resources it takes to create a game like this is truly worth it, and whether projects like this are ultimately doing far more harm than good. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Systems Released May 10, 2016 ESRB T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence Developer(s) Naughty Dog Publisher(s) Sony Genre(s) Third-Person Shooter, Adventure