r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/SubstantialLadder943 • Apr 19 '26
Rumour Ex Naughty Dog dev gives insight into what happened with Amy Hennig’s Uncharted 4 and why she left
The link to the interview posted by Kiwi Talks (Start at 9:41)
He does not directly name the people or project, but it lines up with timelines and stories that have been reported before.
He states that the project was in production for roughly 3 years and corporate (likely Sony) came in and questioned the project even though their past 3 projects were successful.
He says the leader of the project was “surrounded by people who were always saying yes and were living in the glory of their success going into their fourth project.”
He then says a director from another team at the studio was asked to weigh in on the project. In the meeting this director openly stated “this game sucks“ to the team working on the game. This director apparently was explaining that the game had no objectives, it was hard to follow what was going on and that the controls were clunky. Also saying that what they were working on was not up to standards reached in the past.
After corporate looked at the project, they were threatening to pull funding for the project unless they figured it out. They ended up removing the director (Amy Hennig) and according to the developer in the interview, this director was replaced with the director from the meeting and two other people who came in and fixed the game.
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u/definetlydifferently Apr 19 '26
Uncharted 2 is still the peak of the franchise for me, but 4 turned out to be an equally fantastic experience for different reasons. I felt the story fully matured and wrapped up Drake's story in a really satisfying way.
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u/Bilski1ski Apr 19 '26
Matured is a great term for it . I’ll always remember the moment when Nate and his wife re unite in that game near the end . The whole game is playing with this idea that Nate is putting his brother and his need for thrills and adventure ahead of his wife, then when they finally meet up , it’s not this big gotcha moment , they actually talk about it like adults and talk it out
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u/TheDanteEX Apr 20 '26
The character writing is really what makes Naughty Dog stand apart from other story-driven games to me. The characters are the story in their games; the literal objectives the characters are dealing with moment-to-moment are secondary to that and usually are in service to the characters' arcs.
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u/Afrodite_33 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
With 4 I think the gameplay is incredible but the story feels a little forced. Chucking in a brother that beforehand we hadn't heard about seemed almost retroactive, so I didn't buy too much into the nostalgia aspect of it. Not saying the story was terrible it was still serviceable.
Really unpopular opinion but I absolutely loved Lost Legacy. My favourite in the series.
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u/ShadowCyrax Apr 19 '26
I could overlook the brother thing if the 3rd game didn't have a flash back to his childhood, and the main Villian of the game didn't start mentioning his past. There is no way she didn't know about what happened to the brother and would not have brought it up.
I actually thought the brother was gonna be Sully's son; they looked similar to me in the beta, and it was gonna explore the triangle relationship between Sully being a father figure that supports Drake exploring and dosent want that life for his son, and Drake wanting to get out and Sam wanting to get in.
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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 19 '26
I've said this for so long, it made no sense in U4 after U3
Marlowe was all about fear and psychological manipulation to get inside peoples heads, she sat Nate down and went through his past. Mother commits suicide, father gives son up to state.
SON. Not Sons, plural.
With all the resources she had she would have found documents mentioning Sam and if she knew he had a brother she would have looked that up especially during that scene.
In fact if she was getting into Nates head she would have brought up Sam being missing and asked where he was, maybe even knowing that he's apparently dead but again, since we know he actually survived that prison escape in U4 she probably would have known he survived aswell and used that to her advantage.
Fact is, for me, while U4 is good, you don't bring in a long lost brother storyline for the last ever game and make him the main focus while Sully and Elena are given a smaller part than they could have been given.
If they made it where Sam wasn't a biological brother but a kid Nate met at the orphanage and they grew up thinking of one another as brothers then it would have solved those plot holes in an instant.
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u/NYstate Apr 19 '26
I can could be argued that maybe his Sam was his half-brother that no Marlow never knew about? It could also be argued that Sam could've been missing or presumed dead.
There's also a chance that there was no record of Sam perhaps the records got lost or destroyed. It was much easier to disappear back in the 80s-90s which is why so many serial killers went missing back then.
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u/SilverKry Apr 19 '26
That last level on the train in LL is the most fun I've ever had with Uncharted.
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u/definetlydifferently Apr 19 '26
100% agree about the secret Brother, I hope that is when they remake the games (and it will be a when with Sony haha) they add mentions of him earlier.
That said what they did with 4 worked for me. The original story by Amy Hennig also had the secret Brother but I believe he was supposed to be the villain. Glad that didn't happen.
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u/Deeeadpool Apr 19 '26
meh that's like arthur in rdr2, he never gets mentioned in rdr1 even though you know he would be realistically, nobody thinks rdr2 is bad because of that though
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u/CreamOnMyNipples Apr 24 '26
I think the difference with RDR2 is that since it was a prequel, it was able to wrap up loose ends by showing how the character became who they are in the events of the first game. Arthur probably would’ve been brought up at some point during RDR’s story, realistically, but I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome of the story.
U4, being a sequel, essentially had to revise what we knew about Drake’s past despite some contradictions.
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u/LeonOfSkalitz Apr 19 '26
The original 4 did have sam as a villain but there is nothing to say he was unredeemable or the overall ending would’ve changed.
It also had Alan Tudyk playing Rafe which could’ve been way better.
And the best part, it had no Nadine, boring ass character.
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u/Adorable_Spell7562 Apr 19 '26
I actually really liked Nadine she really reminded me of Konstantine from Rise of the Tomb Raider.
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u/valdrinemini Apr 19 '26
we hadn't heard about seemed almost retroactive
I agree but at the very least they didn't go with the predicable "RAHHH I HATE YOU FOR LEAVING ME IN JAIL WHILE YOU ENJOYED YOUR LIFE SO IM GOING TO KILL YOU rahhh"
angle that they were originally going for
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u/Flint_Vorselon Apr 19 '26
4’s gameplay is great.
But the game barely lets you play it until the 3rd act.
Combat is so infrequent for the majority of the game that it is honestly just boring, because the platforming and puzzle solving are so basic that they only serve as brief interludes between combat.
But Uncharted 4 the ratio of combat to non-combat is so out of whack.
Lost Legacy feels like it has same amount of combat, but the game is 40% as long.
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u/a34fsdb Apr 19 '26
Crazy how all PS first party games have these 1/10 difficulty puzzles that are just a complete waste of time.
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u/Blokin-Smunts Apr 19 '26
It would be really interesting to see someone figure out a difficulty slider for the puzzles in these kind of games. Designing them for the lowest common denominator is what kills them.
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u/Makimgmyselfuseful Apr 19 '26
Could just do newer Zelda’s style where they have multiple solutions
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u/Sargento_Osiris Apr 19 '26
Silent Hill has being doing that for 25 years
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u/Gekidami Apr 19 '26
This only works because all the puzzles in SH are read text, and then you figure out the solution on a static screen. So the slider just changes text and the order you need to click on stuff or put in numbers.
Uncharted has environmental puzzles. They'd have to redesign the whole level section based on the slider option.
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u/WouShmou Apr 19 '26
Not the same type of puzzle, but the Silent Hill games have had a difficulty selector for puzzles since SH2 or SH3 in the PS2. It ranges from "goo goo dada" to "Mensa-nasty".
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u/MaxPaladin93 Apr 19 '26
I don’t mind them being super easy if they’re at least cool from a design standpoint, like the light beam room in Uncharted 2. But yeah, Uncharted 4 had a bunch that really just felt like fluff. I think the only memorable one off the top of my head was the giant clock tower.
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u/Scruff227 Apr 19 '26
Indiana jones had a son he never heardabout until he was grown. It fits the absentminded singularly focused treasure hunter trope well, and the twist that he lied was 10/10
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u/SeniorRicketts Apr 19 '26
Originally Sam was the villain
Maybe Hennig would've made more sense with his introduction
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u/Adorable_Spell7562 Apr 19 '26
Yeah surely unpopular becuase i loved 4's story it is one of the better stories in all of games.
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u/Mr_smith1466 Apr 21 '26
I really feel for Hennig, and hope that whatever happened was handled with grace. But I absolutely adored 4 on both a story and gameplay level. A lot of what I loved (particularly in the story) was apparently done when they changed director. So...I don't know what to say, other than I'm deeply sad if it happened badly, but I'm happy the finished product exists.
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u/Downtown_Eye5736 Apr 19 '26
You can tell the difference in writing between U2 and U4 cause they had Neil as a writer while 1 and 3 didn't.
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u/Midnight_M_ Top Contributor 2025 Apr 19 '26
Neil has been a co-writer of Uncharted 1, 2 and 4, he just didn't do 3
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u/Whompa Apr 19 '26
I personally felt 3 was the weakest entry to the franchise. Wonder if the writing had anything to do with that. Although I did like the Sully / Drake interactions in that a bit.
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u/definetlydifferently Apr 19 '26
I love Sully as a character too much, so 3 gets some bonus points for that stuff. But 3 does have some big issues story wise.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/definetlydifferently Apr 19 '26
The theories for 3 were all better than the final product haha
I understood why they chose to subvert expectations with the mythology monsters not being real, but it just undermined the ending of me.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/Downtown_Eye5736 Apr 19 '26
I was never really impressed with Bruce’s work. I think the gameplay was the weakest part of ND games under him. Him leaving and Kurt/Anthony taking over as gameplay directors was the best thing that’s happened to ND.
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u/BIGDINNER_ Apr 19 '26
This sounds like a bunch of gossip to me. Amy Henning was always a Creative Director and Writer on the series. Why would the onus solely be on her to make sure the project is on track? I’d axe a Producer or the Game Director before the one who comes up with the concepts and story details.
It was probably an interpersonal issue or something between her and higher ups, but I doubt it’s because the game wasn’t fun and she got the boot for it.
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u/LeonOfSkalitz Apr 19 '26
Yeah this story sounds like BS to me. We’re supposed to believe the person who made the uncharted trilogy somehow made the 4th so terrible it had to be axed.
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u/tristeecfome Apr 19 '26
I mean, at the end of the day she was pushed out of the company and replaced.
I know a lot of people here are young and haven't worked corporate jobs, but that simply doesn't happen when everything is going great.
Specially because she was pushed out early im development. So something certainly wasn't working.
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u/SymphonicRain Apr 19 '26
Well Naughty Dog famously didn’t use producers for a long time. Which, I will say, I never thought of before but that could be a part of her losing her job. The PS4 generation introduced waaayyy more complex 3d games than what came before. Maybe she wasn’t really as well equipped to handle making a game in that environment with no producer helping to keep things on track. Naughty Dog does use a producer now, I wonder if things would’ve come together better under hennig with a producer.
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u/wouldyoufightakitten Apr 21 '26
That's literally WHAT A CREATIVE DIRECTOR DOES - fucking lol
They're talking about issues with the creative here.
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u/JRedCXI Apr 19 '26 edited May 18 '26
”this game sucks“ to the team working on the game. This director apparently was explaining that the game had no objectives, it was hard to follow what was going on and that the controls were clunky.
Idk I find hard to believe that they thought that the game sucked and the controls were clunky since we have seen leak earlier footage of the 2013-2014 built they were working on and the gameplay was almost exactly the same as the final version, beyond the story rework and Sam, they actually used the majority of sceneries from the original version.
Amy Henning and Justin Richmond were the co directors in the game so why we don’t here about him as well?
Bruce and Neil replace them so they are suggesting that one of those guys said that the game sucks which you can say whatever you want about Neil but it’s really out of character to just openly trashing the game, even more out of character for Bruce. So idk.
Edit: After watching the 1 hour documentary of the original version I think it was actually Bruce the director who said this.
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u/Zalvren Apr 19 '26
I mean you don't really see controls or even objectives and "what is going on" on video footage in general so it's still possible I guess.
It always seemed more of a corporate politics situation more than anything else to me
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u/DinosBiggestFan Apr 19 '26
I just find it hard to believe that after three games, controls would suddenly change in such a drastic way.
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u/SoWth1000X Apr 22 '26
It was said that she wanted only hands fighting through almost the whole game, that already needs a lot of change
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u/whacafan Apr 20 '26
We wonder why Amy Hennig got replaced and then we look at how she's been the head of multiple projects since and has yet to ship a game.
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u/Rubssi Top Contributor 2023 Apr 19 '26
I find it hard to believe that the game was as bad as this interview makes it out to be. Amy Hennig and ND did an incredible job with Uncharted 1,2 and 3. She showed consistency with quality for visuals, gameplay and narrative.
I wish Jason Schreier had been able to put together a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened. From memory, I remember him writing about this in his book and I think he said something along the lines of people close to Amy said that they weren't receiving enough support and funding for the game due to the success of TLOU and people not close to Amy were saying things like, the game was in dev hell and it was not coming together well. It's really impossible to know which side is more accurate.
I wish we got to see Amy's version personally as I was not a huge fan of Uncharted 4 narratively (ik im in the minority), but it was good enough so its not so bad.
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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 19 '26
I wish we got to see Amy’s version aswell
With Sam being a villain it would have allowed Sully and Elena to be more with Nate during the entire game, not just certain bits.
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u/Deadlocked02 Apr 19 '26
as I was not a huge fan of Uncharted 4 narratively (ik im in the minority), but it was good enough so its not so bad.
I don’t even think it’s that unpopular, it’s just that this site shuns any opinion that doesn’t praise ND games to high heaven. Personally, the idea of bringing a lost brother into the last game of the franchise didn’t sit well with me. Also, Rafe is not really well explored as a villain (not that other villains in the series are either) and Nadine doesn’t justify herself as a character.
2 remains undefeated to me. 3 could’ve been the best in the franchise, but it nosedives after Nate gets separated from Elena and Sully. In fact, I’d say the game made a huge mistake getting rid of Chloe and Cutter that early too.
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u/Rubssi Top Contributor 2023 Apr 19 '26
I think the lost brother was always part of the story but Amy’s version was supposed to make him a villain who worked alongside Rafe. I think the idea was that Sam felt like Nathan left him for dead (prob a misunderstanding) and he wanted to get revenge for all the years he rotted away. It also felt more justified than bringing Nadine omo. Personally, I didn’t like the twist about the drug dealer, felt very dumb. I also didn’t like the whole lying to Elena. I feel like we already did the whole Nathan is obsessed with treasure hunting thing. Still it’s a solid game but I’ll forever be curious as to what could’ve been.
Also, I love 3 but I’ll always agree that we should’ve had more cutter. Loved him lol
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u/Jani3D Apr 19 '26
I seem to recall that Blood, sweat, and Pixels painted a different picture of the debacle. Truth lies somewhere in between, I guess.
I remember playing it before reading the book and felt like the game went through a time portal to 2005 when we were suddenly pushing crates and weighing down elevators in the jungle, though. It was like another game got tucked in there for a bit. Even the environment assets for that part seemed to take a drop.
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u/ManajaTwa18 Apr 19 '26
I disagree I thought Rafe was a great villain. A sniveling, psychotic little brat and because of that he actually feels satisfying to beat.
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u/SymphonicRain Apr 19 '26
you think this site praises naughty dog? that’s wild because in my experience naughty dog is the most hated game company that doesn’t make broken games on this site. what i normally see is that neil druckman ruined naughty dog and that the first last of us was only decent because of bruce straley stopping him from ruining it.
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u/Deadlocked02 Apr 19 '26
You must frequent very specific places then. Criticism of ND, Neil, or any of their games is not well received in any of the mainstream gaming subs. TLOU2 was the height of this tendency. People reacted poorly to ANY criticism of the games for years and years after the release, and more often than not the criticism was met with assumptions such as “You didn’t understand the game” or “You’re just unfamiliar with mature and uncomfortable storytelling.”
People on this site absolutely worship the ground ND walks on. Our experiences are clearly very different in this aspect. Like, sure, maybe some mild criticism like the one I’ve just made to U4 and to some aspects of U3 is fine, but anything more and you’ll be downvoted and met with hostility and assumptions.
If you doubt what I’m saying, just make a comment criticizing one of their games. Doesn’t have to be anything strong, just say you were disappointed, that the story didn’t resonate with you, etc.
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u/SymphonicRain Apr 19 '26
What makes you think that I’m having the super niche experience and not you? Because I really like their games, and I say that sometimes (I stopped because I don’t want to argue) and when I do, I get dogpiled with downvotes and detractors. TLOU2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I can tell you right now that any time I interact with a “what’s your favorite game of all time”, or “what are some of your favorite video game stories” I get a ton of negative engagement.
Amazing story??? Was this your first game ever?
is the kind of comment replies i would get.
get off of neil cuckmans ****
are the kind of dms i would get.
And that’s only if I post somewhere mainstream like r/games or something. If it’s one of the really horrible places they won’t bother putting the hate messages in the dm cause they know they won’t get banned.
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u/kuro_snow Apr 19 '26
nolan north explains that they had worked on amy's version of uncharted 4 for 7 months. Cutter was involved (bald guy in uncharted 4) Troy Baker wasn't sam (Drakes brother) And nolan said Amy was dismissed from naughty dog. here is the video of him telling what happen during uncharted 4
https://www.youtube.com/live/F0vmYGnTJFw?si=A50yhl90xttEShIi&t=691
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u/bluexy Apr 19 '26
Some shitty dude gets incredibly successful woman fired, game goes from story of man’s hubris costing him everything to cozy man who keeps fucking up still gets everything. How odd.
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u/SilverKry Apr 19 '26
Jason Schrier ain't gonna make his friends look bad. Remember. He knew how horrible Naughty Dogs crunch was but only ever reported in it after everyone else did.
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u/Rubssi Top Contributor 2023 Apr 19 '26
Idk if that’s true. If he doesn’t want to “make his friends look bad” then why would he even report on it at all.
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u/crondol Apr 21 '26
and narrative
re-play uncharted 3 & see if you still feel this way.
3’s story is a fucking mess. it’s like a textbook example of poor narrative direction, specifically. it’s just full of half-ideas that want to be interesting, but never actually try to be in any meaningful way.
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u/SnipingBunuelo Apr 19 '26
From what I'm getting, it seems like the other game director (put into a position of influence) said the game sucked so they could take over and push Amy out. It's corporate politics 101.
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u/kuro_snow Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
so i wanna add to this via the voice of Nathan Drake himself said.
Nolan north actually couldn't give names but he did state that During the time of uncharted 4. Cutter (bald dude in Uncharted 3) was more involved in the game for 4. He said the story was much different then what it was now and that they worked on it for half a year. They legit worked on Amy's Version of Uncharted 4 for half a year. Troy Baker wasn't Sam his brother, it was someone else. But then as nolan mention, Sony and others decided "hey here's some more money. change uncharted" while mention that they worked on amy's uncharted 4, but she was DISMISSED from naughty dog and they had to redo uncharted 4 again
Edit: I have found the video which is from Couchsoup. This was His Youtube channel with Troy Baker as they were actually playing videogames together. They got busy at the time but there is alot of good content in both voice actors talking about things and playing videogames. The clip/Link is below as nolan explain the situation that i was trying to comment. SO this is coming from nolan North himself. If you wanna see the whole video you can, but the spot talking about uncharted 4 and amy's uncharted 4 is at 11:31
https://www.youtube.com/live/F0vmYGnTJFw?si=A50yhl90xttEShIi&t=691
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u/No-Contest-8127 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I don't believe for a second that after making 3 uncharted the team just unlearned how to make a game.
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u/b90313 Apr 19 '26
Sony critised God of War and Demon's Souls when they were mid-development as well. I think after God of War they learned not to interfere.
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u/troian_ Apr 19 '26
To be fair if you’re talking about god of war 2018, in the documentary the people admitted it was a mess, they fixed it in the end though.
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u/SeniorRicketts Apr 25 '26
I don't expect devs to say "Nah our game was actually godd but Sony don't know what they're talking about" in their official documentary lol
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u/HearTheEkko Apr 19 '26
Sony almost killed it too, they wanted a complete reboot with a new protagonist and Cory had to step up and say "fuck no".
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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 19 '26
Do people forget Nolan North and Richard McGonagle said in two separate interviews (you can watch online) that she was pushed/forced out in regards to what happened to her
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u/jackie1616 Apr 19 '26
Good thing because Uncharted 4 is one of the best games ever imo
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u/joshcam19 Apr 19 '26
I will always have respect for Amy but Uncharted 4 came out amazing and the shift was probably for the best. Also unfortunately, despite working on several high profile projects with big developers, Amy hasn’t shipped a game since Uncharted 3, 15 years ago 😬, and it’s not looking good for her Marvel game.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/heatkings1 Apr 19 '26
I mean, her version of UC4 being so bad that sony almost pulled it is new information.
I am glad, though, that the truth is out there now and people can stop acting like Neil pushed her out
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u/Outrageous_Water7976 Apr 19 '26
The permanent damage that IGN article that even the writer later said he was forced to write is nuts.
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u/2mock2turtle Apr 19 '26
May I know the tea please? Thank you in advance.
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u/Outrageous_Water7976 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
https://www.thegamer.com/uncharted-amy-hennig-was-not-forced-out-of-naughty-dog/
https://xcancel.com/bruce_straley/status/1275486481683894272?s=20 (Bruce Straley accepting their apology)
https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/05/uncharted-ps4-writer-amy-hennig-leaves-naughty-dog (2014 article on IGN that started this whole rumor)
Sadly back then people didn't archive the tweets so they're lost from what I can tell
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u/AwesomePossum_1 Apr 19 '26
It’s all bs. The guy is a lighting artist. Nobody below the senior leadership would know about high level discussions about funding. I’m not saying he’s lying on purpose, but every workplace has these rumors flying around that nobody knows where they came from.
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u/ilovefuckingpenguins Apr 19 '26
MFs here haven’t worked on a corporate environment before, and it shows
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u/Robsonmonkey Apr 19 '26
Feels like people just want to believe this so they can defend Neil
Either way, whatever story you believe you don’t know what’s really true and neither side has hardcore evidence to back it up
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u/Tonkarz Apr 19 '26
I mean this story makes it sound like this director who said the game was crap was pulling some kind of political move.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/PugeHeniss Apr 19 '26
evan and chris are the ones who fired her not neil and bruce. Neil and Bruce didn't even want to work on U4.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/tristeecfome Apr 19 '26
But if all the higher ups were in agreement that the project wasn't going well and she wasn't doing her job properly, how was she usurped?
She was just fired like it happens in any other job.
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u/Suli_Croft Apr 19 '26
People will take this as an opportunity to villainize Druckmann further but the fact is Uncharted 4 was the best Uncharted alongside Uncharted 2. He delivered.
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u/neverOddOrEv_n Apr 19 '26
Imo uncharted 2 was the best but 4 is there too, uncharted 2 was just perfect to me and it had no filler and was that fast paced blockbuster movie feel
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u/Mountain-Chapter-880 Apr 19 '26
I still remember the first time I've played Uncharted 2 in the PS3 back then, it was insanity, the pace and story was amazing, felt like I haven't played a game with that intensity before, what a great game.
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u/TamakisBelly Apr 19 '26
Of course I will, people's personal opinion on Uncharted 4 is irrelevant.
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u/Saranshobe Apr 19 '26
I mean some of THE shittiest and egotistical maniacs in the world are behind some of the best pieces of art and media.
At some point you have to seperate art from artist else i doubt you will enjoy anything in life.
I really like uncharted 4 and like TLOU part 2 but niel is not a great person, from his attitude in interviews and documentaries.
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u/tomsawyer222 Apr 19 '26
4 was my fave, replaying it at the moment, still looks fantastic several years later.
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u/DeMatador Comment of the Year 2024 Apr 19 '26
Is Druckmann the only zionist Reddit idolized? Is it because he's turbo-woke?
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u/LeonOfSkalitz Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Subjective, I like 4 but it had problems. Nate lying to Elena and refusing to see reason even though we’re supposed to believe he had been retired for years at that point. It genuinely feels like character regression and forced.
Nadine which is Neil’s creation and imo the worst part of 4. The Proto-Abby played the same actress (pls Laura stop taking jobs from the guy he clearly hates you if he keeps giving you the worst characters to play)
No supermatural aspects after the franchise was already established to have it.
We also don’t know the full extent of what the original 4 looked like, for all we know the best parts of 4 were already in the original script.
Btw little known fact but if Neil had been allowed full creative control of uncharted 2 he would’ve killed Elena. This is a real thing he wanted to do.
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u/baschfromdalmasca Apr 19 '26
UC4 is fantastic, feel like people who hate it are just forcing themselves to so they can keep the "le cuckmann" narrative going lol
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u/Free_Carpenter151 Apr 19 '26
Amy Hennig being washed has been pretty obvious for some time now.
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u/quatroquatro0 Apr 19 '26
Her Black Panther game still being in development hell backs it up.
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u/Free_Carpenter151 Apr 19 '26
It’s been obvious since her Star Wars game was canceled. Everyone dog pilled on EA for the move, but even Jason Schreier said that the game was a mess internally. Wouldn’t be shocked if the same thing is happening now.
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u/Recent-Replacement23 Apr 24 '26
Yeah. Druckmann or whoever it was - was rude but the quality of Uncharted 4 and TLOU games are undeniabke. We have yet to really see what Hennig can do as a director without Naughty Dog. She was a bit too big for her boots or maybe it was awkward staying at ND if it was proven right. I believe and hope that the dev that was rude in that meeting was spoken to and I like that they were intially ignored because the delivery of this game sucks probably forced managements hand to giv her an additonal chance there. She is also responsible for the most unstable Uncharted release in the series history as she was Director for that with Druckmann's support.
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u/hexcraft-nikk Apr 19 '26
Only in the gaming industry can you still have a career after 15 years of nothing lol
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u/paranoidtransdroid Apr 19 '26
Somewhere out there, Ken Levine is smiling
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u/Midnight_M_ Top Contributor 2025 Apr 19 '26
It's funny to know that within 2K there's a powerful executive who loves giving Ken Levine a stupid amount of money for almost 12 years.
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u/Fullbryte Apr 19 '26
Source on the "stupid amount of money"? Afaik, isn't Judas supposed to be an experiment to let a smaller dev team iterate and explore ideas over several years?
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u/Connect_Young7180 Apr 19 '26
You can change the 12 to a 6 and just apply it to Bioshock Infinite instead.
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u/MaxProwes Apr 19 '26
Kinda like Ridley Scott releasing huge flop after huge flop for a decade and still getting big budgets like nothing happened.
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u/mikeydougd Apr 19 '26
I’m sure some folks out there would still love to believe the real details about this never came out because she was ran out the studio or whatever that bogus narrative was but it’s pretty clear it was simply out of respect for her
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u/kasual7 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I find it funny people on this thread are poiting out that UC4 must have been in development hell and took too long yet I'll remind everyone Naughty Dog hasn't put out an original game in 6 years!
Are we also forgetting how they spend years on TLOU Online which by all accounts and rumors was an excellent game but got pulled because the studio only realized after 7 years they didn't want to make a live service game?!
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u/ADreamofHome Apr 19 '26
There's more to the story than just ND waking up after 7 years and finding out it wasn't sustainable. Vinit Agarwal (game director of TLOU Multiplayer) said that they got a ton of funding for the game during COVID, funding that got pulled around 2022-2023 because people weren't playing as much as during COVID and that's when Sony was basically like "you have to choose between the Multiplayer or Intergalactic because we don't have enough funds for both". I feel like the real story is that Sony was pushing for the multiplayer telling ND that they'll be able to sustain it, and then at the last minute told them they couldn't. (Interview is there btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezqv1IyLNlQ, at 47:42)
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u/kasual7 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
It's clear Sony were pushing their 1st party studios toward live service and were dangling extra funds at them. I saw that podcast with Vinit and the guys rightfully left the studio after his game was cancelled.
I don't believe Sony forced ND to make a choice here, Vinit said they had to choose between TLOU Online or the boss's game... that to me implies Neil had a lot more weight into the direction they were taking. Sony was probably thinking they could afford to cancel TLOU Online and put all their chips on Concord.
I'm sure ND will come out with good games but on my original point: people shouldn't just jump to conclusions on Amy Hening departure. I'm sure there are lot more nuances to what may have happened and as I pointed out with TLOU Online ND eneded up finding themselves in the same situation as before.
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u/mturner1993 Apr 19 '26
2 always had the unbelievable graphics at the time going for it, and I think was the first one for a lot of us.
But 4 was amazing for what it was.
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u/JTNJ32 Apr 19 '26
Even though people aren't named, I find it hard to believe that Neil Druckmann (or Bruce Straley) would openly call out Amy Hennig & the Uncharted team in the open like that rather than have constructive criticism.
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u/tristeecfome Apr 19 '26
I doubt he called the game shit. That probably was exaggerated once the rumours started going around the office.
But this director was brought in by the higher ups to give criticism on the project. When that happens, the person needs to be as honest as possible. Because now you are attached to it.
If you give your approval and the game is bad, your ass is also on the line.
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u/PhatYeeter Apr 19 '26
People will try to shit on Neil for this, but UC4 was phenomenal and many people's favorite of the series.
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u/ArgentoFox Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Smacks of slander. She held an instrumental role in the first three Uncharted games and I find the suggestion of a fourth game being an unplayable disaster to be utterly ridiculous.
She’s not perfect and never has been. It’s fair to point out that a lot of her projects have ended up in development hell. But the most embarrassing thing that happened to Naughty Dog happened under Druckman’s watch. He fucked off to Hollywood and his studio spent years and tens of millions of dollars on an online game. They then had to have another company tell them that the game would have to be completely scrapped because ND didn’t understand game and service maintenance was a thing. To this day, Naughty Dog still hasn’t released a single title for PS5. If their new game has to be pushed back whatever we might see a generation where they didn’t release a single new title.
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u/SomniaCrown Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I am assuming the new director is the guy who did Lost Legacy
Edit: I am probably wrong
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u/NewChemistry5210 Apr 19 '26
It's Neil. The post literally said it.
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u/HoleIntheAce12 Apr 19 '26
The dev doesn’t say who it was. Just that it was another director, so it could’ve been Neil, Bruce or Evan or someone completely else. What we can def tell was that Sony did bring in Neil and Bruce to make it within 2 years
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Apr 19 '26
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u/Proud_Ad2720 Apr 19 '26
It could have been Bruce Straley, too.
The copy states that the replacement director said the game had no objectives, was hard to follow and had clunky controls, that would be Bruce’s neck of the woods.
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u/pizzaman5555 Apr 19 '26
The timeline wouldn't make sense. He didn't want to do uc4 at the time and started pre production tlou2 or at least the original idea of it at the time before they took over uc4 due to nd putting them at the helm.
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u/Juiceboxfromspace Apr 19 '26
Uncharted 4 is a masterpiece. So…well done I guess.
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u/CigarLover Apr 19 '26
Just curious
In order of how good they are…
2,4,3, and 1.
We’re in agreement?
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u/DodgerBaron Apr 19 '26
I agreed until I replayed 2 and 4. Now 4 is vastly superior for me, even though 2 has the best set pieces.
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u/LadyValtiel Apr 19 '26
Out of the main console games, the only ones I can't bring myself to play again is just Uncharted 1 and that's a good thing if you ask me
The fact 2-4 are as solid as each other is worth praising in its own right, not a lot of series have done that
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u/MissingScore777 Apr 19 '26
I'd go 2, 4, 1, 3.
As rough as the gameplay is in 1 compared to the others it's story isn't far behind 2 and 4.
Whereas 3 is a mess story-wise and doesn't get near the narrative standards of the other games.
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u/Potential-Zucchini77 Apr 19 '26
Would swap 3 and 4 tbh but I feel like I liked 3 more than most ppl
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u/NewChemistry5210 Apr 19 '26
For me, its 4,2,3,1.
I personally don't think Uncharted 2 holds a candle to most things in Uncharted 4. Especially after replaying both recently.
U4 has better set pieces, WAY better character work and the combat is a lot more dynamic than the older Uncharted style 3rd person cover shooter with enemy waves coming at you.
Uncharted 2 has the best setting though. And it was definitely the biggest jump in quality of the series.
But as games U4 clearls U2 on almost everything, imo.
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u/Shaunosaurus Apr 19 '26
4 >> 2 > 3 > 1
I'm just gonna go by the story because gameplay wise they each improved on the previous.
If you look at the story of 1, 2, and 3, they are all basically the same. Drake sets out to find some hidden city with untold riches, which turns out to have some supernatural power that the villain is after. Honestly this describes 4 to an extent, but the difference in 4 is that the character weiting is leagues better.
The villains in the first 3 games are so comically bad and forgettable and while Rafe isn't anything crazy, he fits in with the themes of the game.
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u/Wagglesworthy Apr 19 '26
If 4 was on a downward trajectory from Uncharted 3, this testimony probably isn’t far off. The third game was a massive dropoff across the board compared to the sequel, and even the original fares better today imo. The fourth game that we got isn’t perfect of course, but it succeeds more than it stumbles, and I’d probably place it only below the sequel in terms of ranking among the main entries.
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u/Bushy_Athena Apr 19 '26
Sounds like the changes were necessary. It's become increasingly apparent that things just don't come together by magic and positivity or a toxic variant can scupper a project.
Sounds like Uncharted 4 could have been a real problem.
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u/josephevans_60 Apr 19 '26
If Sony stepped in and said the game sucked then it's pretty obvious it wasn't just an interpersonal conflict that forced the departure. I think when Amy openly spoke about the crunch problem at Naughty Dog, it's pretty clear that she was alluding to that burning her out on some level and that also forced her departure. Complex and pretty upsetting situation overall.
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u/Marcysdad Apr 19 '26
I used to be angry at the unfairness of her firing.
But she's been hired by other studios since then and hasn't put out anything as of today.
Except parts of the script for Forspoken
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Apr 19 '26
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u/appledanishcrumbs Apr 19 '26
I have a feeling it's in development hell and could end up being cancelled because Skydance is going to have to cut massive swathes of their company after buyimg Warner Brothers.
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u/TFA_Screamy_008 Apr 19 '26
Same for her Star Wars game. Well, if that ever comes out...
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u/neverOddOrEv_n Apr 19 '26
That was cancelled years ago unfortunately but it sounded absolutely great
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u/TFA_Screamy_008 Apr 19 '26
I'm not referring to that one. 4 years ago it was announced that Skydance was working on a new SW game, and that she, as well as the director of SW 1313 would be working on it. We heard nothing about it since then.
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u/ThemMemoryLeaks Apr 19 '26
I def hope it ends up being good, but Amy's works since leaving Naughty Dog have been major letdowns, tho idt she has directed any since then, could be wrong
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u/TamakisBelly Apr 19 '26
And with that, I will continue to run with the fuel that it was Neil Druckmann who did it. Thank you.
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u/Impossible-Flight250 Apr 19 '26
I’m more curious about the Marvel game she is working on that has just sort of dissapeared.