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Naughty Dog Vs. Insomniac Games, who is the premier Sony developer?

Who is the boss?

  • Naughty Dog, obviously

    Votes: 212 34.4%
  • Obviously Insomniac Games

    Votes: 241 39.1%
  • I lean Naughty Dog, slightly

    Votes: 92 14.9%
  • Insomniac Games by an inch

    Votes: 72 11.7%

  • Total voters
    617

Tschumi

Member
I have trouble putting many studios in general up against crash Bandicoot, jak, uncharted and tlou, regardless of fan reception of tlou2's plot choices.. i love insomniac but yeah in the last decade naughty dog has done more... Hard to hold Into The Nexus up against U2 or 3
 
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Astral Dog

Member
Overall prestige in the industry/'gamming community' Naughty Dog wins easily, but i think Insomniac has made the better playing game for Sony, Spider Man
 
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Salz01

Member
Naughty Dog seems to be sleeping this generation. LazyDog.
Seriously though, super disappointed no MP factions was shown. Not even a hint. Insomniac literally aren’t sleeping this gen. Firing on all cylinders.
 

Kerotan

Member
Overall insomniac. Crash better then spyro series but both were godly.

Ratchet better then jak series and still going strong.

Uncharted better then resistance.

But TLOU better then all.

But then insomniac are pumping out games faster like the 2 spiderman games and the dlc.

It's such a good battle. The only winner are PlayStation owners.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Insomniac delivered one of the PS5's launch showcase titles - the original being one of the best PS4 titles and probably the best superhero game of all time - and then followed it up with the PS5's graphical showcase, and are now set to deliver a next-gen sequel and a brand new game... and Naughty Dog are delivering unnecessary "remasters", a deeply unnecessary remake, and multiplayer title whose viability as a standalone game is yet to be seen? TLOUIII hasn't been confirmed, and judging from the reception to TLOUII, they'll have an uphill battle getting half their fans back on board. From my perspective, Insomniac are in their prime, and Naughty Dog are stuck in "TLOU land" on projects few people are pining for.
Where would Insomniac be without Marvel IP's? They'd be as big as Ratchet and Clank.
Sunset flopped, no one cares about it, Resistance was a terrible franchise no one cared about.
Naughty Dog has delivered nothing but staple, original IPs every single gen.

Crash. Playstation staple. Iconic.
Jak and Daxter. Playstation staple. Iconic.

Uncharted. Playstation staple. Iconic. Quite literally Started the whole "cinematic experience" all of Sony 1st Party is now known for. Including Insomniac.

The Last of Us. Playstation staple. Iconic. Go look at what God of War was before The Last of Us, then what it became after it.

Naughty Dog is also the most important dev for Sony when it comes to raising the bar, setting trends and influencing others.
 

HawarMiran

Banned
hard to answer. But for me i think it is ND. Insomniac is very close tho. If they Make Wolverine gory and not open-world they could get to number 1. Because i enjoy set-pieces and the level design in open-world games is not on par with the kinds of tightly directed games. But in regards to output Insomniac is king so far.

I should add that I didn't play the new Ratchet and Clank
 
Naughty Dog without a doubt. Quality over quantity any day. Their games have won more game of the year awards then any other developer in history. Insomniac is a great studio, and their output is insane, but Naughty Dog is the top of the class. So much so that the competition has their own internal teams perform book reports on their games and praises them for being the best:
 

Amiga

Member
Several Sony studios are better than ND now.

the technical skill of team Asobi is underrated. they need to be put on a big project for people to realize it like Insomniac with Spider-Man.
 

ZehDon

Member
... Naughty Dog has delivered nothing but staple, original IPs every single gen... Naughty Dog is also the most important dev for Sony when it comes to raising the bar, setting trends and influencing others.
... most of the people who created those IPs are gone. And Hennig and Straley left, leaving Druckman to run the show. His first solo outing at head pissed off about half the players that played it. And their next outing under his direction is multiplayer spin off to that title, and their next after that is apparently a remake of the title that made him known. Personally, I don't think that's a particularly good direction myself, and it leaves me disinterested in their output.

In terms of "influencing others"... you present this like its a good thing? Sony are now producing almost exclusively third person cinematic action adventure games with a strong focus on cut-scenes. The thinking seems to be "Well, it worked for Naughty Dog". That's a far cry from what made PlayStation as a brand a massive draw for people like me. Now we're down to "don't like watching games? Then don't buy PlayStation". That's not a good thing in my books.

On the other hand, look at the breadth of what Insomniac has produced. First person shooters, platformers, super hero games, colourful and fun third person action games. In comparison, I think Naughty Dog's stuck on repeat. Insomniac are killing it, and I'm super keen to see what they do next.
 
Although i don't like most of their games it's ND. Just another level of quality and perfectionism. Spider-Man was nearly a 1:1 Batman clone with boring sidemissions and lame and much too easy bossfights. They are talented and have solid games, but not top/god tier yet.
 

KRYPT83

Member
ND and it ain't even close wtf has Insomniac done? Let's be totally honest they didn't reinvent the wheel making spider man? Infact the combos city has been the same since Activision and beeknox was making Spiderman. Insomniac took the blueprint added a good story and had the advantage of current gen graphics. Now Wolverine is exciting if done right if the game is not rated M why bother making it, same rules applied to the Deadpool movie apply to this Wolverine game. TLOU2 as a piece of software/game is the most impressive thing I've seen besides Flight simulator. ND by a mile then SSM then SP then Insomniac
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Has Insomniac ever made a game better than Last of Us 1?
To that I’d say no. The Last of Us and Uncharted 2 definitely put Naughty Dog’s peak output above Insomniac’s.

However I’d counter that point by saying that all of Insomniac’s Spyro trilogy, the main line Ratchet games, the Resistance trilogy and Spider-Man are all comfortably better than the Crash trilogy, Jak 2, Jak 3, Uncharted 1, Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us 2.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
ND and it ain't even close wtf has Insomniac done? Let's be totally honest they didn't reinvent the wheel making spider man? Infact the combos city has been the same since Activision and beeknox was making Spiderman. Insomniac took the blueprint added a good story and had the advantage of current gen graphics. Now Wolverine is exciting if done right if the game is not rated M why bother making it, same rules applied to the Deadpool movie apply to this Wolverine game. TLOU2 as a piece of software/game is the most impressive thing I've seen besides Flight simulator. ND by a mile then SSM then SP then Insomniac
WTF has insomniac done?

Well without Insomniac existing the PS5 launch window would have looked like this for core PS IP/PS created games:

Astro
DeS Remastered
Spider-Man Remastered
Spider-Man Miles Morales

Returnal
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart

I’m not including trash like Destruction All Stars and Godfall.

And you’d be looking forward to this over the next 24 months:

God of War 2
GT7
Horizon Forbidden West
Spider-Man 2
Wolverine


So WTF have Insomniac done? Most of the heavy lifting to be honest.
 

Fbh

Member
At this point it's hard to deny it's Insomniac. They are basically carrying the Ps5.

Ps5 launched with an Insomniac exclusive (Miles Morales)
One of the biggest exclusives of 2021 was from Insomniac (Ratchet)
The only new thing Sony had to announce in their first big event in quite some time were not 1 but 2 Insomniac games
 
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DrAspirino

Banned
Insomniac = True GAME developers

Naughty dog since PS3 = Wannabe hollywood MOVIE developers.

So there's no discussion, since betweeen those 2, only Insomniac develops GAMES (yes, with capital letters. They're that good).
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Oddly enough I finished both spiderman and uncharated 4 last week and I have the same grief with both. The fighting is just too much. too many shoot outs in uncharted and spiderman fights too many people who takes way too much to put them down.
 
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Odfdly enough I finished both spiderman and uncharated 4 last week and I have the same grief with both. The fighting is just too much. too many sh oot ou ts in uncharted and spiderman fights too many people who taked way too much to put them down.
But, they're both (along with every other PlayStation game) walking simulators and interactive movies.
 

GymWolf

Member
Probably insomniac right now, but the next nd game is gonna make look wolverine and spidey 2 cute at best.

If we talk personal taste, they are santa monica and guerrilla since i prefer their latest output compared to insomniac\nd.
 
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Salz01

Member
I do want to note that, the higher Druckman gets promoted the less out put Naughty Dog has had. All last gen they had 4 games, one was a remake, one was a dlc spinoff. So two main games. And those IPs were made successful in the PS3 era.
 
If we were getting another inFamous to go along with Ghost of Tsushima, I'd be tempted to say SuckerPunch.

I dont think Insomniac's games are my favorite, but it is difficult to argue with their quality and just how many they manage to put compared most other AAA studios.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
I do want to note that, the higher Druckman gets promoted the less out put Naughty Dog has had. All last gen they had 4 games, one was a remake, one was a dlc spinoff. So two main games. And those IPs were made successful in the PS3 era.

Dev times are increasing across the board. Santa Monica had one game last gen. Sucker Punch had two as did Guerrilla. Why do you think this is isolated to ND and Druckmann?
 

yurinka

Member
I think it was ND until they decided to go woke and that to have white male protagonists is problematic, toxic, sexist and misogynistic and that their females must be unattractive to heterosexual males, and that their next male characters must be dumb or bad guys. So for me, Uncharted 4 is where ND lost their reign. I didn't like Lost Legacy and TLOU2 for things like that and they aren't my favorite Sony devs anymore.

I prefer Insomniac now. They did a great job with the Spider-Man games and Rift Apart, have a faster development process and now they have Wolverine, my favorite Marvel character. Yes, Insomniac also wanted to include more representation giving protagonism to a black Spider-Man and to a female Ratchet, but they did it with charismatic characters and being respectful to the brands, to the iconic protagonist characters of these brands and to their fanbase.

Dev times are increasing across the board. Santa Monica had one game last gen. Sucker Punch had two as did Guerrilla. Why do you think this is isolated to ND and Druckmann?
AAA games now take 4-6 years of development on average, and PlayStations get released every 7 years. So every team can only release 1 or two games per generation. So they must have more game tracks working on different games at the same time or to share their work with more studios to release their games faster.

For the last gen Santa Monica developed:
-GoW 2018
-GoW Ragnarok

And published/overviewed/supported/incubated:
-Hohokum
-GoW 3 remastered
-The Order 1886
-Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
-Fat Princess Adventures
-Bound
-Here They Lie
-Some PS4 ports of 2nd party games they published for PS3 and Vita

A few years ago they did stop publishing, incubating and supporting 2nd party studios. XDEV will now handle that and Santa Monica will focus on developing their own games. They have been growing and seems they will continue growing so they will be able to work in multiple games at the same time as Insomniac does. We know that in addition of Ragnarok they are working in at least Cory's game and according to Cory they have 'many things in the works', so maybe they are working on more than 2 games at the same time.

I assume Cory may be working on a new IP while also overviewing how they reboot the next GoW, that since seems Ragnarok will close the Norse arc it may go to another mithology. Tsushima got Japan, so I think they will go to Egipt next. And also may be making experiments to see what new things they can do pushing hard the PS5 hardware.

Naughty Dog will have released for this generation:
-Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection (developed by Bluepoint)
-Uncharted 4
-Uncharted Lost Legacy
-TLOU remastered
-TLOU2
-TLOU2 Factions (it was originally TLOU2 MP mode so I think it's fair to assume will be released for PS4)

Guerrilla:
-Killzone Shadowfall
-Horizon
-Horizon 2
* Also supported other games like The Last Guardian or Death Stranding, but not sure until which point

Sucker Punch:
-Infamous Second Son
-Infamous First Light (standalone DLC game)
-Ghost of Tsushima

Insomniac (many of these were small VR or Magic Leap games):
-Ratchet & Clank 2016
-Song of the Deep
-Edge of Nowhere
-The Unspoken
-Spider-Man
-Seedling
-Stormland
-Strangelets
-Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Knowing Spider-Man 2 will have the same director than Spider-Man 1 and that Wolverine will have the same as Miles Morales, and Rift Apart had another one, seems they have at least 3 gamedev tracks working at the same time.
 
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CJ_75

Member
Naughty Dog not showing anything new at the last showcase starting to worry me.
It looks like the studio had a major burnout after they finished TLoU2. It looks like they have trouble starting a new project, ether with a new IP or existing IP. I hope they don't waste too many resources on the 2 Uncharted remasters.

But man o man, Insomniac is really killing it at the moment. 2 major games released in a short period, also a remastered Spiderman, a PS5 patched Ratchet and Clank and already teasing their next game for 2023. 2023 is not even that far away. Many games are delayed due to the pandemic but I have no doubt Insomniac will pull this off without any delays.
 
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mxbison

Member
Insomniac has an unmatched output of high quality games right now. Industry #1 in that sense IMO.

Nothing they have done reaches the highs of Naughty Dog though.
 

assurdum

Banned
Literally shocked to Nsomniac. 2 games in less than an year of ps5 life, now other 2 games and without crunch. ND should ask many feedback by them, it's almost embarrassing the difference between them and I'm not even a great fan of Nsomniac games.
 
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CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
Insomniac by a mile. ND has to be the most over rated devs in the history of gaming and Insomniac have to be the hardest working devs in gaming.. I'm not a fan of their games but millions of other people are, they look like they are super polished, they don't put a bunch of SJW tropes in their games and their output since becoming 1st party is amazing.

Has Naughty Dog even completed the promised MP for TLOU 2 yet? I don't think so.
 

TheBomb

Member
Girl Why Dont We Have Both GIF
 

xiskza

Member
Insomniac are amazing at pumping up great games at a quick pace. However we can't really disregard ND's amazing achievements with their own IP's. I feel like Insomniac has (successfully) managed to reach the popularity they have by borrowing from popular IPs. ND had to establish original IPs to the same level of success.
 

Sushen

Member
Naughty dog if you look at the full history. If you narrow it down to ps5 era, no question it’s Insomniac.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Insomniac have shown us TWO AAA games dropping for PS5, with TWO already in the can. Where tf is Naughty Dog? They haven't shown us ANYTHING.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Insomniac have shown us TWO AAA games dropping for PS5, with TWO already in the can. Where tf is Naughty Dog? They haven't shown us ANYTHING.
Greatness takes time.

They are working on a MP game, a new IP, and TLOU 3. Come on now.

ND will shine in the second half of tis gen. You shall see
 
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coffinbirth

Member
Greatness takes time.

They are working on a MP game, a new IP, and TLOU 3. Come on now.

ND will shine in the second half of tis gen. You shall see
So, you think ND are going to drop all of that THIS gen? LOL. Unless they have dramatically cut scope and hired additional teams, this seems pretty unlikely. Tag on to the HEAVILY rumored bullshit that they are remaking TLoU, "T1X", and that seems even less likely.
Also, their last two games kinda sucked.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
So, you think ND are going to drop all of that THIS gen? LOL. Unless they have dramatically cut scope and hired additional teams, this seems pretty unlikely. Tag on to the HEAVILY rumored bullshit that they are remaking TLoU, "T1X", and that seems even less likely.
Also, their last two games kinda sucked.
Yes, I do.

Last gen they gave us
TLOU Remastered
Uncharted 4
Uncharted Lost Legacy
The Last of Us Part 2

This gen they can easily do

MP game
New IP
The Last of Us Part 3

also a TLOU 1 remake


this myth that insomniac is way more productive is just a myth.
 

Salz01

Member
Dev times are increasing across the board. Santa Monica had one game last gen. Sucker Punch had two as did Guerrilla. Why do you think this is isolated to ND and Druckmann?
The topic is specifically for ND vs IN. Also in part that it’s almost been a full year and no ND roadmap has been laid out or displayed. The so called leaks have mentioned either reworks of previous games, a mulitplayer game that was cut form tlou2 (PS4), and a possible new ip. He has has creative rights, or some involvement to the HBO show. It just seems they have other priorities now.
 
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