Naughty Dog co-founder says he sold the studio to Sony because of the cost of producing AAA games
, by Thibaut
Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984 as Jam Software, Naughty Dog has become one of the gaming industry's biggest players to date. Sony bought the company back in 2001, and now we know what was behind all this.
Gavin has explained what led to this takeover on LinkedIn, and these are largerly financial. In his message, the co-founder points out that the development of an AAA game costed less than $50,000 in the 1980s. This rose to $100,000 in the early 90s, and then to $1.6 million for the first Crash Bandicoot and $15 million for Jak & Daxter.
Until 2000, Naughty Dog financed all its projects, but this stopped being viable. Development of Jak 3, for example, cost between $45 and $50 million. By joining Sony, Gavin mentions that the studio also had access to more resources to allow it to "continue to produce the best games possible".
Today, Naughty Dog has become a household name, with world-famous licenses such as Uncharted and The Last of Us. What's more, the Californian company is currently at work on a new franchise called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Source: linkedin.com