Naughty Dog: A new Jak & Daxter would do "everyone a disservice"

By Robert Purchese Published 6 February, 2012

The Last of Us team explored the idea "fairly extensively".

The Naughty Dog team making The Last of Us very nearly made a new PS3 Jak & Daxter game, the developer has revealed.

But in the end it was decided such a project would "do everybody a disservice" - both fans of the series and the creators at Naughty Dog.

"We'd all talked about it in interviews with fans asking, 'Where's the next Jak & Daxter?' I don't know if this is going to make them happy or sad, but we did explore the idea fairly extensively," Naughty Dog co-founder Evan Wells told GameInformer (via VG247).

"Something that we talked about early on was, 'Let's go back and apply what we've learned with the Uncharted games to Jak & Daxter.' It's one of the franchises that's near and dear to us and, in all honesty, we'd like to somehow honour."

"We would end up limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted."

Evan Wells, co-founder, Naughty Dog

He added: "Even if we felt like we were going to give the fans another Jak & Daxter, we felt we weren't going to give them the game that they wanted. We would end up limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted. We just realised we were going to just do everybody a disservice. So at that point, the conversations started to move in a new direction."

Thus, The Last of Us.

Jak & Daxter isn't necessarily binned for ever more; Naughty Dog is a prospering studio and Wells believes his company has "a long future". To say never, therefore, would be "kind of crazy", as Wells put it.

And while there's "a possibility" the Uncharted team could do the honours, Wells believes they'd run into "all of the same problems" The Last of Us team did.

The silver lining is a remastered Jak & Daxter Collection for PS3 that will be released at the end of the month. This bundles tarted up HD versions of Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2 and Jak 3.

The Jak & Daxter Collection for PS3.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 4 months ago

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  • StolenGlory #1 4 months ago

    "A new Jak & Daxter would do "everyone a disservice"

    They really are excessively modest aren't they?

    Just make the bloody thing already.

  • Eldritch #2 4 months ago

    Dear Naughty Dog,

    I love what you're doing on a technical level, but, to me, the Uncharted games are too close to Dragon's Lair to be really enjoyable.

    Do you think you could focus a bit more on actual gameplay next time? It would be great if your game would give me the illusion of actually caring about what I'm doing - like it needs a player, not an audience.

    Yours truly,

    Eldritch

  • AceGrace #3 4 months ago

    What about Jak-X?

  • superfurry #4 4 months ago

    Translation - "We're big boys now and make big boy games. With zombies and everything!"

    Their Jak & Daxter games are still their best output and while it's understandable that they may want a change, they really shouldn't rule out going back to what they do best. Especially if the alternative is an game that's arriving late to a genre already suffering from over exposure and player fatigue.

  • freedumb #5 4 months ago

    Not really surprised and had guessed as much with all their focus on Uncharted and now a new franchise.

    People don't want to play platformers any more, or anything approaching exploration and puzzle solving. As gaming gets even bigger and development costs grow even higher, it's all shooty-bang-bang from now on :/
    Edited by freedumb at 06/02/12 @ 11:25

  • kirinnokoshin #6 4 months ago

    @Eldritch

    'like it needs a player, not an audience'

    Brilliant line. I'm stealing that one if it's all the same to you :-)

  • Mister-Wario #7 4 months ago

    Sigh. And instead we get The Last of Us, a game that will be hyped into oblivion but still follow the same zombie/survivor setting we've seen a dozen times already and sell bucketloads anyway.

    Jak and Daxter was something wonderfully vivid and unusual, and Uncharted simply isn't. It's a game that, to me, prizes spectacle, graphics and characterisation over storyline and gameplay. WHen I was playing it it felt like a mishmash of earlier efforts without really carrying any of them off as well as its predecessors. The Last of Us, to me, just feels like a case of playing it safe and it's a shame when we've seen what this studio can do. Sure, the game will be fun. But will it be groundbreaking? Will it be a game, or just a movie with occasional gameplay segments? Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but I just feel we should be asking for more than this, especially from a studio that has shown it can create truly unique worlds. Games are one of the most open and imaginative mediums out there. Why are we encouraging Naughty Dog to merely give us something we've seen a thousand times before?

    At this stage I feel like asking: is this a case of not making Jak 4 because you don't feel like you could make a good sequel? Or is it a case of making The Last of Us because it's guaranteed to sell more?
    Edited by Mister-Wario at 06/02/12 @ 11:29

  • alcides #8 4 months ago

    I have no care for it anyway.

  • Eldritch #9 4 months ago

    @kirinnokoshin

    Glad to be of service, mate. Just froze my balls off (it's -15 °C in these parts), so maybe that got the creative juices flowing...

  • Milkman1 #10 4 months ago

    I am glad someone is still making new IPs.

    These endless sequels make me sick. They said Halo 3 was going to be last Halo. There has been 2 or 3 Halo games since and no end in sight.

    Not that Halo is bad game, but enought is enought. Halo just for example, almost every succesful game gets milked to death.

  • hedges1001 #11 4 months ago

    @Eldritch dragon's lair? really? sure UC had a few cinematics but it wasnt a giant QTE. there's exaggeration and then there's that

  • Widge #12 4 months ago

    @alcides yep, didn't like it back then, not keen on a new iteration now.

    Strange market the gaming one. On one hand people demand new titles, on the other more sequels.

    Leave in the past, move on.

  • Eldritch #13 4 months ago

    @hedges1001 Yes, I know I'm exaggerating things here, but the truth is I fell I'm no longer needed when I attend/sit through some of today's AAA games.

    Of course, it all depends on your personal expectations, but, to me, I don't think games such as Uncharted or God of War or Gears of War need much of a player anymore. Which, to me, is sad, because what's the point in playing them in the first place then, when you could just as well press PLAY and watch them as a (well-produced) film?

  • Hindle #14 4 months ago

    Post deleted at 23:04:43 04-04-2012

  • NiolK #15 4 months ago

    Jak & Daxter - the poor mans Ratchet & Clank.

    EDIT: WAHOO! First comment that's "below the threshold"!
    Edited by NiolK at 06/02/12 @ 16:43

  • kirinnokoshin #16 4 months ago

    @Eldritch

    Ouch. Last time I experienced -15C was in Poland and Vodka was the only answer.

  • Eldritch #17 4 months ago



    This just about sums it up for me.

  • danhese007 #18 4 months ago

    Make it a pet project for PS Vita, lets see what you guys at ND can do with it.

  • Mister-Wario #19 4 months ago

    @NiolK Hardly. Ratchet and Jak are two quite different games. It's like saying apples are the poor man's orange.

  • Eldritch #20 4 months ago

    @kirinnokoshin Then again, in Poland, Vodka is always the one and only answer.

  • NiolK #21 4 months ago

    @Mister-Wario Don't be silly; Oranges are the poor mans Apples.

  • Darren #22 4 months ago

    Well I'm happy to be getting the HD collection as I really enjoyed the first game and always wanted the chance to play it again with better technical values. The sequels were less impressive but still entertaining enough.

    That the PS3 never got a proper Jak & Daxter sequel is a shame really as Ratchet & Clank translated well enough to the platform and proved that there's still an audience for these charming, humorous, cartoonish platform/shooters. I'd rather play these games and RPGs than yet another bland/generic corridor FPS.

  • Machetazo #23 4 months ago

    I'm satisfied with their reasoning of wanting to do a new Jak & Daxter when they're feeling it more, and when the timing is such that they can dedicate to it, and make a strong, exciting new game that rekindles interest, as much as it inspires new players. That time isn't now.
    Those compromises aren't worth it just so that there can be a new J&D. I hope the series won't be away for too much longer though, as it's been a while since the last game.

    @Darren: On PS3, Sony decided to push Ratchet & Clank, instead, in that space.
    Edited by Machetazo at 06/02/12 @ 11:51

  • King_Edward #24 4 months ago

    So you're not as good as you used to be? Fair enough.

  • BuckEntropy #25 4 months ago

    I couldn't help reading a little something like this between the lines:

    'We now have this untouchable reputation and expectation for delivering the most impressive looking games on PS3, but a lot of our established tech would be virtually unusable @60fps... so either most people wouldn't accept the visual tradeoffs, or we'd risk catching hell from a hard-core minority [like me] for doing J&D with half the fraerate.'

  • drumbaby #26 4 months ago

    @Eldritch...FPS design = a straight line, no junctions, and a few less cut scenes.

  • Rens11 #27 4 months ago

    Jak 4 on vita would be nice pretty please

  • funkateer #28 4 months ago

    "I couldn't help reading a little something like this between the lines:"

    I think you're reading something that isn't there at all.
    My interpretation is that they were interested in other things than going back to J&D, and that *if* they'd go back, they'd create something that J&D fans didn't ask for.

    IMHO it's probably a similar reason why Square-Enix shouldn't create a FFVII remake because that would similarly end up pleasing nobody: The fans of the old game would complain it would be changed too much while new players would complain it would feel too old-fashioned.

  • ATNR1 #29 4 months ago

    Even though I would love a Jak4, I cannot help but compliment Naughty Dog for creating new ip's after each trilogy they completed.

    Sure the Last of Us doesn't seem like anything ground breaking, but I will keep my judgement for when it is released. So far UC1 and UC2 were two of my favorite games I played this generation. I didn't enjoy UC3 as much as the previous two, but it was still excellent. So I have faith in this company to deliver.

    I loved the Jak series, but to me Uncharted took them to a whole new level, and they should keep going forwards and not back.

  • Triggerhappytel #30 4 months ago

    Honestly, there's no pleasing some people. ND make one of the best new franchises of the generation, but everyone criticises them when the third isn't quite as good as the second (which was the most acclaimed game of 2009, don't forget).

    Then they announce a new big-budget IP with an onus on story and character, but it's still not good enough as people want them to revisit an old franchise. I'm just glad some developers are still willing to or able to make new IPs this late in the generation.

    ...Although I would love a new Crash Team Racing. Hell, just re-skin it and make it into Daxter & Clank Karting!

  • Arwin #31 4 months ago

    I still wouldn't mind a Jak & Daxter, or perhaps just another Daxter, perhaps for PSVita, also created by Bend. :)

  • CARL05 #32 4 months ago

    Whatever happened to the Jak & Daxter PSP trilogy?
    The one they released was average but wasn't properly concluded :/

  • Accordi0n #33 4 months ago

    Rubin & Gavin leave and Naughty Dog forgets what fun is.

    Yay more cutscenes!

  • Baleoce #34 4 months ago

    Just give Jak an unironed shirt/stubble and hire Nolan North to voice act him. Then make the game an "experience". I find Naughty Dogs philosophy of "experiences" (or rather, their implementation of them) in game-making boring and tedious. It also suggests going forward they are going to be quite narrow minded with regards to new IP. Different situations, characters. Same mechanics. Granted I have not seen The Last of Us yet, but once we do, that will give us a good idea of how they are planning to evolve as a company.

  • evnewell #35 4 months ago

    @Mister-Wario Totally agree. Thank you, finally someone who doesn't mindlessly follow the whizzing guns and bullets.

    Naughty dog peaked with Jak 2 and 3. the uncharted series, is safe, linear and marketable. The Las of Us is extremely derivitive. will Naughty Dog do it better than, say, Dead Island - for sure!

    I want some non-linearity, some character skills progression, some puzzles (no, uncharted doesn't have real puzzles) and I want to explore large and hidden worlds. fuck shooty shooty.

  • JamieR #36 4 months ago

    I love jak and dextor games. if you want more and havent played dextor or the lost frontier yet then gave them a go not as good as the main 3 but still great games.

  • BuckEntropy #37 4 months ago

    @funkateer - I wasn't seriously suggesting that as THE reason, or even trying to imply it's a big deal technically. Yet we also have the ready example from Insomniac's attempt to carry on the R&C games on PS3, which I think look pretty amazing, but most consumers don't seem to respond to that anymore.

    I just see a technical side to the same sort of assessment others have made about ND here, they're kings of this hill of their own making... so hey, no sense reinventing their own wheel?

  • globalisateur #38 4 months ago

    The first in the serie was so charming, it was all about an adventure without any no guns. Well, almost.

    A prequel called Jak & Daxter 0 would be nice, with even less weapons than the first... and more adventure and poesy.
    Edited by globalisateur at 07/02/12 @ 01:01

  • pigsy2400 #39 4 months ago

    I wouldnt mind seeing a Jak & Daxter on the Vita, I think that would be the perfect platform for it in going forward.