A new PlayStation 5 ad appears to include a mysterious matchstick for an unannounced game that some fans believe could be the next Uncharted – one that doesn’t feature Nathan Drake as the protagonist.
The new announcement, titled “Live from the PS5“, features Sony’s suite of exclusives, both from PlayStation studios and third parties like Square Enix, as live-action clips on a news broadcast. These clips spotlight games like God of War Ragnarök, wonderit is Spider Man 2, Forbidden Horizon West, Returnand Gran Turismo 7. Another live-action clip, which is only seen in short bursts of a few seconds, shows a young woman exploring a cave lit only by a torch and encountering an ancient artifact and blowing off dust. The images do not appear to match any released or announced games from Sony Interactive Entertainment.
That’s why some PlayStation fans think it’s a match for the next Uncharted game, and it will feature Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher’s daughter, Cassie.
Cassie appeared as a young teenager in the playable epilogue of Uncharted 4: A Thief‘send. Although the ending of the game doesn’t reveal much about her character, it’s clear that she inherited her parents’ sense of adventure and sometimes joins Nate and Elena on expeditions. But she’s unaware of the extent of her father’s treasure-hunting escapades – that is, until she finds the key to Nate’s secret cabinet and her parents are forced to reveal their adventurous past. Given Cassie’s interests and talents — she loves history and archeology, speaks Latin, and can scuba dive — she seems like a natural fit for the video game adventure lifestyle.
The woman seen in the new PS5 ad looks like an adult Cassie. She is dressed in jungle clothes and carries a backpack and climbing gear.
Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann (who co-directed Uncharted 4) recently told Buzzfeed that the studio behind the Uncharted games put their “final brush on this story”, saying it was done and “moving on”. But that doesn’t mean another studio couldn’t pick up where Naughty Dog left off, especially with a new heroine. Other teams, including Bend Studio (Uncharted: Golden Abyss) and Bluepoint Games (Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection) got their hands on the franchise. After all, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman said last year Unexplored the film adaptation is the start of a film franchiseso Sony isn’t ready to let the Drake family go.
Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
As VGC Remarks, Jobs on PlayStation pointed to another studio “co-developing an exciting new project with Naughty Dog in a beloved franchise”. The original developer behind Unexplored and The last of us is currently busy creating a multiplayer spin-off set in the world of The last of uswhich we should hear more about this year.
The most recent entry in the Uncharted game franchise was from 2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a spin-off starring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross. In addition to exploring the franchise without Nathan Drake at the helm, lost legacy brought a new gameplay wrinkle to Uncharted games: an open-world game map that players could explore in a non-linear fashion. Its new protagonists and a new take on Uncharted gameplay offered a glimpse of what the franchise could become in the future.
