Naughty Dog Co-Founder Says Selling Studio to Sony Is the Right Call
In order to survive in the video game market, studios often have to make deals with big companies. Naughty Dog co-founder Andrew Gavin explained why selling the studio to Sony was a win-win decision.
On his LinkedIn, Andrew Gavin talked about the state of video game development, pointing out significantly increased budgets. If in the 80s, games cost less than $50,000 to create, then in the 1990s, Crash Bandicoot required about $1.6 million to develop. And the budget for the platformer Jak 3 in 2004 was between $45 and $50 million.
It wasn’t just us. This was (and still is) a systemic issue in the AAA space. Developers almost never have the
resources to fund their own games, which gives publishers enormous leverage. Selling to Sony wasn’t just about securing a financial future for Naughty Dog. It was about giving the studio the resources to keep making the best games possible, without being crushed by the weight of skyrocketing costs and the paralyzing fear that one slip would ruin it all. Looking back, it was the right call.
Recall that Naughty Dog was acquired by Sony in 2001 to develop console exclusives. Under its leadership, the studio released some of its most popular games, including the Uncharted and The Last of Us series. Andrew Gavin himself left his brainchild in 2004 and spent most of his time working on startups and writing books.
Earlier, the actress of the new Naughty Dog game criticized the gamer audience for mocking her character in the trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
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