Naughty Dog President Calls Next-Gen Hardware "Terrifying"

Uncharted studio head says that console transitions have never been smooth or painless

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Uncharted developer Naughty Dog's co-presidents expressed their concerns about making the transition to a new generation of consoles. One ND president, Christophe Balestra, called the process "terrifying". He said that;  "We [Naughty Dog] made some mistakes with our move from PS2 to PS3 and we won't make those again."

The other Naughty Dog President Evan Wells was slightly more positive, describing any new console a "double-edged sword", and explained that the idea of working with a new console can quickly become as daunting as it is exciting: "The geek inside you is always excited about a shiny new toy, but then the practicality of it starts to set in: this is going to be a lot of hard work."

According to Wells, Naughty Dog's last console shift, moving from the PS2 to the PS3, was very stressful for the staff: "the period that Naughty Dog had its darkest days and we lost people on a weekly basis - people just couldn't get through it," said Wells.

Despite their concerns, Naughty Dog managed to survive that last transition and thrive: The studio recently created a second team to start work on their new game, The Last of Us, which may well be the last game they develop for the PS3. It also means that they studio may be gearing up to face their fears and begin working on their own next-gen project in 2012.

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