We have an interesting new rumor about a game that you may not have heard of for a long, long time: Uncharted Drake’s Fortune.
Sikamikanico and Shpeshal Nick of the Xboxera podcast corroborated on a rumor they learned independently about Naughty Dog’s first foray into cinematic gaming. As they explain on the podcast, they were both shown proof that the studio had been working on a remake of Uncharted Drake’s Fortune. However, they don’t have information if this remake is still in production.
Enter Speclizer. Speclizer mods and goes through video game files to find information just like this. Speclizer sent out a tweet that Shpeshal Nick retweeted on his own account. Here is what Speclizer had to say:
“All the Uncharted 1 Remake rumours have stemmed from my research that I’ve shared privately, here’s the proof that Uncharted Remake was/is in the works. All datamined from a 2020 build of TLOU 2
In the years I’ve been reversing, data mining and modding TLOU 2, I’ve noticed HUNDREDS of references to the TLOU Remake (internally called “t1x”) in TLOU 2’s files but thought nothing of it. 2 years later TLOU Remake was announced and released.
But this isn’t all that was left over. There are also hundreds of references to Uncharted 1. Here are some that references that I’ve ripped from TLOU 2 files. This may or may not be a cancelled project.
A level definition referencing the plane crash scene in Uncharted 1:
A task found inside a left over dev tasks file. “vasg” meaning Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group and “uc” meaning Uncharted. Not sure what pt means. Second screenshot shows the level name “seaplane-story-main”. In 2021 it was reported that VASG wanted to remake Uncharted 1.
A state script named “ss-cin-seaplane-animated-bg.bin” for the plane crash scene that is built to run in the latest ND engine. All it does is play the cinematic, but of course cannot be restored as it requires assets that are not present in the game files.
Below is a file that contains all the settings for wrinkles on characters faces, it contains a reference to an Uncharted 1 Drake head.”
So as Speclizer clearly explained, the data he looked at suggests that these files were made by PlayStation Visual Arts. We had reported on layoffs being confirmed at this studio, after rumors went around that the studio may have had layoffs because of the cancellation of The Last Of Us Online.
Based on this information alone, we do know that not every project that Naughty Dog set out to make in recent years received a full greenlighting. But it would make sense to remake Uncharted Drake’s Fortune, a title that is now seventeen years old.
Uncharted Drake’s Fortune was part of the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, released on the PlayStation 4 in 2015. That game compilation itself has aged quite a bit, and that could make the case for a remake of not only this game, but the others in the compilation.
Naughty Dog seems to be stuck making remakes of their library in recent years, for better or worse. The case to remake the Uncharted games is stronger than for the one they did release recently, and it’s definitely one that fans would want to have in spite of everything. If Sony really is making these, hopefully they’re planning a PC release as well.
