Details about Naughty Dog’s sale process to Sony have emerged. Increasing game development costs played a decisive role in the sales decision.
with Jason Rubin in 1984 NaughtyDogAndy Gavin, who founded , explained the reasons behind the sale of the studio to Sony in 2001. According to Gavin’s statement on LinkedIn, increasing game development costs made it impossible for the studio to survive independently. Naughty Dog, known for famous games such as Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, had difficulty financing its own projects during this period and therefore needed Sony’s secure financial support.
Naughty Dog’s Rising Costs
Andy Gavin states that game development costs were quite low in Naughty Dog’s early years. For example, while the first games in the 1980s were made with budgets of less than $50,000, this figure increased to $1.6 million for Crash Bandicoot in 1996 and $15 million for Jak and Daxter in 2001. By 2004, the budgets of AAA games had reached 45-50 million dollars.
This increase wasn’t unique to Naughty Dog; It had become a general problem in the AAA gaming industry. Stating that they had difficulty in meeting this financial burden as an independent studio, Gavin stated that thanks to Sony’s financial support, they were freed from this pressure and were able to focus on creative projects.
After coming under the umbrella of Sony, Naughty Dog created series that achieved global success such as Uncharted and The Last of Us. In particular, Uncharted has become one of the most popular series on PlayStation 3, while The Last of Us received full marks from both critics and players. During this period, Naughty Dog became one of the most prestigious studios in the gaming world.