Naughty Dog Picked The Last of Us Remake Over Uncharted 1 After 2018 Test

Q: Why did Naughty Dog remake a modern classic instead of the game that truly needed it?

Naughty Dog appears to have chosen *The Last of Us Part I* because it was the safer, more efficient remake, while *Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune* needed a far deeper overhaul. Reports from dataminer Thekempy, backed by earlier reporting and prototype files reportedly found in *The Last of Us Part II*, indicate Sony and Naughty Dog did test an *Uncharted* remake around 2018 or 2019. But that test seems to have shown a larger problem: the 2007 original was not just visually dated. Its level design, pacing, combat spaces, and set-pieces would have needed substantial redesign to feel modern alongside *Uncharted 4*. That matters because a remake is not always just a graphics upgrade. In *Drake’s Fortune*’s case, bringing it up to current Naughty Dog standards likely meant rebuilding major parts of the game, increasing cost, time, and creative risk. By contrast, *The Last of Us* already had more contemporary structure and design, so it required less fundamental modernization. That made it easier to justify as a PS5-era remake, even if many players felt it was less urgently in need of one. So the answer is largely practical: Naughty Dog did not necessarily remake the game that “deserved” it most; it remade the one that was more feasible to modernize without effectively making a new game. The shelved *Uncharted* prototype still suggests the studio recognized the first game’s need for a revisit, but also how difficult that revisit would be.

3 articles · Updated · Insider Gaming · Jun 29

A 2018 or 2019 prototype of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was built inside Sony before Naughty Dog shifted to remaking The Last of Us instead, according to dataminer Thekempy.
The test slice reportedly recreated the plane-to-island sequence with Uncharted 4-level visuals, and parts of that work later appeared in The Last of Us Part 2 files using the same engine.
Naughty Dog allegedly concluded Uncharted 1 needed heavier modernization of levels and set pieces, making The Last of Us the easier remake candidate.
The account adds weight to long-running speculation that Sony has explored reviving Uncharted, though there is no indication the Drake's Fortune remake was ever fully approved or restarted.