Presentation

Before Crash Bandicoot, Nathan Drake, Joel or Ellie, there was simply JAM Software.

In 1984, Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin founded what would eventually become Naughty Dog. Today, the name feels almost inseparable from PlayStation, but the studio had already lived through years of game development before joining Sony: early projects, different publishers, new machines, changing technologies… and eventually an encounter with the original PlayStation that would completely alter its scale. (naughtydog.com)

Four decades later, Naughty Dog is a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, based in Santa Monica, California, and part of PlayStation Studios. Its catalogue stretches across several eras of gaming: 3D platforming with Crash Bandicoot, broader adventures with Jak and Daxter, the cinematic spectacle of Uncharted, and the far more intimate storytelling of The Last of Us. (naughtydog.com)

The form changes.

The technology changes.

So do the characters.

But beneath those transformations, the same idea keeps returning: use the capabilities of a new generation of hardware to create an experience that the previous one could hardly have carried.

And quite often, start almost from scratch to make it happen.

History

Before Naughty Dog, there was JAM Software

The story begins in 1984 with the creation of JAM Software, short for Jason and Andy Magic. Five years later, after finding new partners to publish their games, Gavin and Rubin incorporated the company under a new name: Naughty Dog, Inc. (naughtydog.com)

Those early years were the story of a small independent developer learning its craft one project at a time.

Then an orange, vaguely marsupial-shaped character appeared.

And things accelerated very quickly.

Crash and the PlayStation connection

With Crash Bandicoot, released in 1996, Naughty Dog became closely associated with the original PlayStation. Sony and the studio developed a relationship strong enough to last for years, even while Naughty Dog remained independent. (sony.mediaroom.com)

Crash also established a trait that would return throughout the studio's history: designing a game around the possibilities and limitations of the machine it was being built for.

The series grew alongside PlayStation itself, before Naughty Dog eventually left Crash behind.

A new generation meant a new world.

PlayStation 2: leaving Crash behind to create Jak

The PlayStation 2 opened another chapter with Jak and Daxter.

Rather than simply building “the next Crash,” the studio created a new franchise and pushed further into larger environments, greater world continuity and a stronger sense of freedom.

It is a pattern Naughty Dog would repeat several times: when a new hardware generation changes what seems technically possible, the studio is also willing to question what it had been doing before.

In January 2001, its relationship with PlayStation became permanent. Sony Computer Entertainment America acquired Naughty Dog, turning the team into a wholly owned subsidiary while allowing it to retain its name and studio identity. (sony.mediaroom.com)

Naughty Dog was no longer an outside PlayStation partner.

It had become part of PlayStation itself.

Uncharted: changing the language again

The PlayStation 3 brought another rupture.

The stylized characters and colourful worlds of Crash and Jak gave way to Uncharted, with more realistic proportions, far more elaborate animation and staging designed to keep action and storytelling moving together.

Members of Naughty Dog have described Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as a major transition that forced the team outside its comfort zone, requiring new tools, a rebuilt pipeline and solutions to considerably more complex production problems. (naughtydog.com)

The change was not merely visual.

Something was shifting at the centre of the studio's work.

Technology remained essential, but it increasingly served character performance, presence and the way a story could unfold while the player was still actively playing.

The Last of Us: closing the distance

That evolution took another form with The Last of Us, announced in 2011.

Naughty Dog introduced the project as a character-driven story blending survival and action around the relationship between Joel and Ellie. (naughtydog.com)

The shift is revealing.

Crash asked how a platform game could work in 3D.

Uncharted explored how a spectacular adventure could flow without constantly separating gameplay from cinematic presentation.

The Last of Us asked a more intimate question: how close can a game bring us to two characters?

Yet the studio continued working with the same raw materials: animation, environments, interaction, pacing and technology.

They were simply serving a different purpose.

A new chapter with Intergalactic

Naughty Dog does not appear interested in remaining forever among the ruins of The Last of Us.

In December 2024, the studio revealed Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a new PlayStation 5 franchise that had been in development since 2020. Naughty Dog describes it as another character-driven adventure while also promising to push its gameplay ambitions considerably further. (naughtydog.com)

It is still too early to know what this new phase will ultimately represent in the studio's history.

And that is exactly what makes it interesting.

After Crash, Jak, Uncharted and The Last of Us, Naughty Dog is once again starting over in a different universe.

What sets it apart

Reinventing itself instead of preserving a formula

Visually, very little connects Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us.

Yet their succession tells the story of Naughty Dog remarkably well.

The studio builds a formula, develops it across several games, then eventually accepts that it may be time to leave it behind.

Crash did not become Jak.

Jak did not become Nathan Drake.

Nathan Drake did not become Joel.

That willingness to change worlds when a new ambition demands it has become an important part of the studio's identity.

Technology as a language

Naughty Dog itself highlights the combination of advanced technology and character-driven storytelling as one of the defining aspects of its work. (naughtydog.com)

That distinction matters.

Technical achievement is not used merely to place more detail on screen.

It also shapes:

  • animation;
  • facial expressions;
  • transitions between actions;
  • environments;
  • pacing;
  • staging;
  • continuity between player control and storytelling.

During development of the first Uncharted, the team notably had to create new animation tools and rebuild significant parts of its production pipeline to achieve what it wanted. (naughtydog.com)

At Naughty Dog, technology becomes especially interesting when you eventually stop noticing it.

A character stumbles.

Places a hand against a wall.

Turns their head slightly.

Reacts to someone nearby.

And all that invisible work begins producing something more than a graphical showcase: presence.

Characters before mythology

Naughty Dog creates large worlds, but its modern games often rely on immediately readable characters and the relationships between them.

Nathan Drake exists as much through his hesitation and exchanges with the people around him as through the ruins he climbs.

The Last of Us pushes that idea considerably further by making the relationship between its characters the driving force of the journey itself.

And when Naughty Dog introduces Intergalactic, the studio once again speaks of an emotional, character-driven journey as part of its ambition. (naughtydog.com)

The environments may grow larger.

The hardware may become more powerful.

The animations more subtle.

But the distance Naughty Dog wants between the player and its characters seems to keep getting smaller.

Good to know

  • Naughty Dog was not the studio's original name. Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin founded JAM Software in 1984; the company became Naughty Dog five years later. JAM stood for Jason and Andy Magic. (naughtydog.com)
  • Sony did not found Naughty Dog. The studio remained independent through its early years and throughout the original Crash Bandicoot era. Sony Computer Entertainment America acquired it on January 22, 2001. (sony.mediaroom.com)
  • The studio is currently based in Santa Monica, California, and is a wholly owned Sony Interactive Entertainment subsidiary within PlayStation Studios. (naughtydog.com)
  • Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us represent four major phases in its history, although the individual works are linked to the entity through their own PANACHES CULTURE records.
  • Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is Naughty Dog's next announced new franchise. The studio says development began in 2020 and that the project is being created for PlayStation 5. (naughtydog.com)