Naughty Dog founder explains why he sold to Sony: ‘Looking back, it was the right call.’

Naughty Dog co-founder Andrew Gavin has reflected on why the studio was sold to Sony.

Gavin, who worked at the studio until 2004, reflected on how the games industry has changed in a post on Linkedin.

Gavin claimed that the California-based studio was sold due to “skyrocketing,” budgets.

“In the early 80s games cost less than $50,000 each to make,” he wrote. “By the time we got to Jak and Daxter, the budget busted  the $15 million mark.”

Video game budgets have increased rapidly in the last decade, leading several projects to reach, and in some cases cross, budgets of $500 million. The Last of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog‘s latest game which was released in 2020, cost $220 million to develop.

“Selling to Sony wasn’t just about securing a financial future for Naughty Dog. It was about giving the studio the resources to keep making the best games possible, without being crushed by the weight of skyrocketing costs and the paralyzing fear that one slip would ruin it all,” he continued. “Looking back, it was the right call.”

Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, was announced during The Game Awards in December.

Naughty Dog Boss Neil Druckmann said last July that numerous games, including “multiple single-player projects”, were in development at Naughty Dog, but stressed that while they won’t all be The Last of Us titles, they will have a similar goal.

“We create experiences that are steeped in story and character, especially relationships,” he told the LA Times. “The stories have some sort of philosophical core that everything is going to revolve around and feed into.”