There’s an interesting new rumor about Naughty Dog and their plans for the near future.
Based on a rumor found in 4chan and shared on reddit by user OOO_Katai_OOO, Naughty Dog is working on a new IP right now, codenamed Paradox.
This is an action adventure with a dieselpunk fantasy theme, which clearly differentiates it from the other games in Naughty Dog’s library. The world is surrounded by a black sea, where dark robot monsters called Abyssals emerge to threaten humanity. Humans themselves have sheltered in smaller city states, protected by shiny trees.
This game is an open map, which allows players to visit different islands that will each have their own cultures. It will also feature procedural dungeons, from ancient cities that emerge from the black seas.
The story features two thief brothers, who are escorting a girl with strange powers. Apparently she is the only one who can stop the return of the Royal Abyssals.
Paradox is also the name used for the main weapons. These are similar to the weapons used in Ratchet and Clank, but in the story, these are rare artifacts with reality changing powers.
Lastly, this is a purely single player experience, and the game started work in 2021.
If true, it will be the first original IP PlayStation has made in a while, and could be a major franchise for the company for this generation and the next one. It’s also the odd bit of positive news for the studio, following a series of setbacks.
Last month, we had reported that Naughty Dog had actually laid off a few of their own employees in QA. This followed months of rumors that their The Last Of Us multiplayer title, tentatively named Factions, had been put on the back burner.
It had been worrisome that Naughty Dog seemed to have suddenly stalled on their game releases, but if this is because they are busy working on a completely new title, then it may be worth the wait.
It’s also possibly a positive that this is not an online or multiplayer title, meaning it falls out of the live service game purview that The Last of Us Factions would be in. While Sony fans seem to be negative on the prospect of live service games from PlayStation, none of the proposed titles have actually released yet for us to tell if they will be popular or not.
In any case, that makes it more likely that Paradox will be successful. We’ll see if it turns out to actually be real in the coming months.
