Naughty Dog, the studio behind ‘The Last of Us,’ was sold to Sony due to increasing game budgets

As the scope of the game, expectations of fans and the team get bigger, so does the budget and it is the reason why ‘Naughty Dog’ one of the most popular video game development studios with hits like The Last of Us, Uncharted, and Crash Bandicoot was sold to Sony. The revelation was done by its co-founder, Andrew Gavin, in a LinkedIn Post.

The entire post addresses a single question. “Why did we sell Naughty Dog?” and the skyrocketing budget was the main culprit. We say culprit, but that’s what happens in the game industry in general. The early days of Naughty Dog started with the team making a profit on one game and putting on another.

When the studio started, the game development cost was around $50,000, however, with each game, the budget kept increasing. Rings of Power saw a bump to $100,000 and the profits from that were put into Way of the Warrior.

One of the most iconic games, Crash Bandicoot cost the studio $1.6 million which wasn’t a small amount during the 90’s while by the time they entered 2001, Jak and Daxter saw the same budget increase to $15 million. Up until 2000, the studio was self-funding all the projects as per Gavin.

Also Read:Sony releases another teaser for CES 2025 presentation

Every video game studio faces the issue of funding

The harsh reality of today’s AAA game development industry is that games can easily cost well over $100-200 million to complete. As such, It’s hard to survive in the competition as everything depends on the game’s success and can make or break the studio.

“Selling to Sony wasn’t just about securing a financial future for Naughty Dog. It was about giving the studio the resources to keep making the best games possible, without being crushed by the weight of skyrocketing costs and the paralyzing fear that one slip would ruin it all,” he added.

There was a high chance that even if Naught Dog would have survived without the Sony buyout, however, Gavin thinks selling at the right to the right party allowed them to make even more incredible games. This does seem to be true as their next installment past Sony acquisitions like Uncharted and The Last of Us are critically acclaimed.