Not that I disagree, but ND had a fairly successful last gen. Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy and TLOU2 in 7 years is not bad at all. SSM for example made just one game during that span. Sucker Punch made two. GG made two. and Bend made one.
The problem is what happens next. TLOU2 shipped in 2020 so they shouldve had a game due in 2023 just like Spiderman 2. At the very least they shouldve shown an ingame tease like they did at E3 2014 with that incredible looking Uncharted 4 teaser. But they were a no show despite getting an extra 4 months. That's indeed troubling.
P.S Insomniac announced this game way too early. They literally dont even have a face for their character model. lol. they should be commended but not for a CG trailer. Let alone two ingame/cg trailers. Maybe ND didnt want to show anything without gameplay.
they put out uncharted 1-3 and TLOU in 6 years. 4 full games, 3 of which had full MP modes.
2 games + DLC is a drop off, and only 1 had an MP mode.
they are a growing studio, had two teams, one team focusing on easy to produce sequels, the other focused on new challenging IP.
they regressed big time. They now only have one team because they found two to be too difficult, and yet it is the most efficient way to juggle studio resources as insomniac has shown time and time again. Insomniac has 3 teams now (Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, and Ratchet). This allows them more time for games that take longer to develop (Wolverine) while being able to execute immediately on safer IP that’s developed already (Spider-Man / Ratchet)
Naughty Dog really fucked up after the TLOU success got to their head and the narrative guys took over. Bruce Staley, the creative game director, left. Amy got wrongfully kicked out. I preferred her light hearted adventures. UC4 was way too serious, and now that Druckman has full control their games are just a slog of bad pacing despite having stunning production values.
Amy and Bruce ran a tighter ship. ND needs to go back to that model and stop creating bloated games that are unplayable on repeats. Insomniac strikes the perfect balance, I can go back and play their games without wanting to pull my hair out having to slow walk and talk while kids throw snowballs at me.