Why saying goodbye to the Uncharted series was so hard for Naughty Dog

If it seems like the 18 hours of gameplay for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and some of the scenes, like the epilogue, lingered for you as a gamer, there’s a reason for it. Naughty Dog’s co-directors, Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, had a hard time letting go of the franchise. When they took over development a few years ago, the first decision they made was that this would be the last Uncharted game out of four main console titles.

That was a momentous decision, and it drove a lot of the thinking behind the theme of the game, the parallel plot with the pirates, and the ultimate ending. I sat down with Straley and Druckmann at Naughty Dog’s headquarters in a wide-ranging interview. One of the things we talked about was letting go. Here’s what they had to say.