There's a question mark hanging over Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, with some people wondering what will happen to the franchise once Naughty Dog wraps up the story arc of their charismatic lead character, Nathan Drake.
Might the studio carry on the franchise but with a new character, or are they going to draw a line and come to a conclusion before moving onto other things?
"We get more and more that feeling of this definitely [being] the end of an era for us as a studio," co-director Neil Druckmann told the Official PlayStation magazine. "We've been with this franchise for almost ten years now from inception all the way to this point. Luckily, we don't get too much time to dwell on that feeling because we're so busy, but every once in a while... you know?
"I remember when Bruce and I came onto the project. A few weeks later we pitched a pretty new story to the team, kind of like a new direction for the project. A lot of things were pretty rough and just slotted in, so there was an ending but it wasn't as well defined, and at some point we defined more of the [plot] thread and a more definitive ending, and we did a second pitch for the team."
It wasn't just the developers who have become emotionally invested in the series. As Druckmann explains there were a few tears shed when the team were wrapping up the game's motion capture:
"You could tell people in the room were just getting emotional as we were discussing the specifics of how this series is going to end. That was one of those moments where you felt the excitement and anticipation for our fans to experience this, but a little bit of sadness because it's ending. The other day we finished motion capture with Emily Rose (Elena) and Richard McGonagle (Sully), and some people got teary-eyed in the room because they've been part of this project for many, many years now and it's wrapping up."
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is heading to PlayStation 4 on March 18.
Thanks, GamesRadar.