Developers at Naughty Dog say they would rather spend their time working on a whole new game.
Although single-player DLC packs have become increasingly important components of AAA franchise titles in recent years, games studio Naughty Dog has revealed that its upcoming release Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will not be getting any kind of single-player DLC after its launch. While the team has hinted at possible multiplayer DLC for the game, they say that they’d much rather spend their time working on new games than on creating episodic, single-player DLC.
In an interview with Eurogamer, game director Justin Richmond explained that his studio’s small size means they have to manage their time carefully. “We’re so small that we can’t afford to have a whole team working on DLC,” he said. “We’d much rather be working on the next game, producing the game quickly and having people play another adventure.”
“Whenever we sit down and think we should do some single-player DLC, someone pitches something and we realize – that’s a five hour level,” Richmond continued.
Given the relatively small size of Naughty Dog (the company employs around 90 people on its development team, a workforce which is almost five times smaller than the group Activision rallied to develop Call of Duty) it makes perfect sense for it to avoid single-player DLC and focus its resources instead on one of the “new adventures” mentioned by Richmond. Even taken alone, the fact that this studio has managed to create something as expansive as Uncharted 3 with such a small team is impressive. It also suggests that perhaps much of Naughty Dog’s recent success lies in this cautious and sensible approach to time and resources; there’s a pragmatism about this decision which suggests much in the way of intelligence.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be released on November 2nd.
Source: Eurogamer
