I managed to get a rare peek inside Naughty Dog’s headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., during an interview with the co-directors of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann. Their game is peppered with Easter Eggs that are homages to games from the past, including The Secret of Monkey Island and Crash Bandicoot.
At the headquarters, I toured the place with community strategist Arne Meyer. We saw the signature Naughty Dog paw print at the entrance, as well as a trophy case of the company’s storied games, including the Uncharted series, The Last of Us, Jak and Daxter, and the Crash Bandicoot series. The company’s newest game, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, launched on May 10 on the PlayStation 4. It has an average rating on review aggregator Metacritic of 93 out of 100, and it sold more than 2.7 million units in its first week alone. To date, the whole Uncharted series has sold more than 23 million units.
One thing is for sure: Naughty Dog has probably made the sellers of picture frames and glass cases very happy in Santa Monica. We had fun walking around the office, and we hope you’ll like our photo gallery.
If you’d like to read about our conversation, here’s the links on saying goodbye to Uncharted, advice for game developers, making games over movies, Naughty Dog’s headquarters, and the Monkey Island Easter egg. And here’s the full comprensive interview.