Currently Online 
| G2ThaUNiT said: 2026 may be optimistic too. TLOU Part II started development in 2014 and took 6 years to make with 2100 people total working on the game with notorious crunch, and for a PS4 game. I can't imagine how long it'll take for a PS5 only game along with changes at the studio to where crunch won't be necessary. Hopefully. May be even more people required. |
From what I understand of Naughty Dog's development, most of those people only worked on it the last 2-3 years. Most of them were working on Uncharted 4 + Uncharted TLL beforehand. And a lot of them probably moved onto TLOU Online, and then they got moved to whatever is next in full production.
There was a Naughty Dog dev that said most development time (regardless of new IP or sequel) is with a small team that is prototyping and doing concept work stuff.
I think that's a big reason why Insomniac is able to put out games so quick. You have 3 sets of directors each working on their project, and then you move everyone around as needed. Spider-Man 2 probably took 5 years of development overall, but 80% of the people that worked on it also worked on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man Miles Morales. And similarly for Wolverine.
If Druckmann + Kurt Margenau started work on something besides TLOU Online, I think 2026 is pretty realistic. Maybe even late 2025 if things go well.
Horizon Forbidden West apparently has around 3400 people
Spider-Man Miles Morales around 2000
God of War Ragnarok: 2600 people
Assuming that Matthew Gallant, Shaun Escayg are directing something again, something like 2028-2029 seems reasonable.
