A former Naughty Dog designer who helped shape the early Uncharted games has pushed back against the idea of remaking or remastering the first entry. Benson Russell, who worked as a game designer on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and The Last of Us, told FRVR in a recent interview that he does not see the value in revisiting Drake’s Fortune when a playable version already exists on modern hardware.
"Uncharted as a thing is still in the zeitgeist," Russell said. "There’s already a version you can play on modern consoles to get the experience. What’s the point of remastering or remaking it?"
He contrasted the situation with older titles that genuinely benefit from modern updates. A remake of System Shock, for example, made sense because the original had awkward controls that locked many players out. Uncharted does not face the same barrier. The Nathan Drake Collection already brings the first three games to current PlayStation systems, and Uncharted 4 along with The Lost Legacy received their own collection treatment in 2022.
Russell went further on why a full remake would be complicated. Modernizing the 2007 game to match the slower, more character-driven style of later Naughty Dog titles would require rewriting large parts of the story. That process, he argued, would alter the tone and key set pieces that defined the original.
"I just don’t see the point of remaking it," he explained. "You’d have to rewrite the whole story to make it better which means you’re going to change the spirit and you’re going to change the scenes and what the first one was about, right? You’re going to have to add all these scenes or take things away and a lot of the key set pieces. Are you going to keep those? Are you going to have to redo them because they don’t fit your story? It doesn’t make any sense."
He applied the same logic to The Last of Us Part I, the 2022 remake of the 2013 original. In his view, those older games exist in their original form for a reason. A remake of Drake’s Fortune, he added, would risk feeling more like a cash grab than a necessary update.
Instead of recreating the first game, Russell suggested Naughty Dog take the lessons learned from Uncharted 4 and build something new. He specifically floated the idea of a story set earlier in Nathan Drake’s life, capturing the spirit of the series without retreading the same ground. "Just don’t recreate the first game. It’s just, eh."
The comments arrive at a moment when Naughty Dog’s output has leaned heavily on remasters and remakes. After The Last of Us Part II launched in 2020, the studio released The Last of Us Part I in 2022, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection the same year, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered in 2024. Its next original title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, is still years away, with reports pointing to a 2027 window at the earliest. The long gap between major new releases has left some fans frustrated by the steady stream of updated older games.
Russell’s perspective carries weight because of his direct involvement in the franchise’s early design. He joined Naughty Dog around the time Drake’s Fortune was taking shape and stayed through the peak Uncharted years and into The Last of Us. After leaving the studio, he has worked in consultancy, focusing on helping teams streamline production and avoid the long, drawn-out development cycles that have become common in big-budget games.
There is historical precedent for Sony and Naughty Dog considering an Uncharted remake. Earlier reports and datamining indicated that the studio and PlayStation’s Visual Arts Support Group explored updating Drake’s Fortune around 2018 or 2019. A test scene was even rebuilt using Uncharted 4-level visuals. Ultimately the project was set aside in favor of the Last of Us remake, in part because Drake’s Fortune was judged to need more substantial redesign of levels and set pieces to meet modern expectations. Bloomberg had previously noted that a full Uncharted remake was viewed as expensive and design-heavy.
Russell’s stance lines up with a broader conversation in the industry about when remakes are worthwhile. Games that are genuinely hard to play today or that suffer from technical limitations often benefit. Titles that remain accessible and culturally present face a higher bar. Uncharted still sells, still appears in discussions, and still introduces new players to Nathan Drake through the existing collections. For many fans, the hunger is less for another version of the same story and more for a fresh adventure that builds on what made the series special.
Naughty Dog has not publicly responded to Russell’s comments. The studio’s current focus remains on Intergalactic, its first new intellectual property since The Last of Us. Creative director Neil Druckmann has described the project as the team’s most ambitious yet. Whether that game eventually opens the door for a return to Uncharted in some form remains unknown. Russell’s preference is clear: use the lessons of the past to create something original rather than rebuild the first chapter.
The discussion also shows how development timelines have stretched. Games that once shipped on a regular cadence now take many years, and remasters have become a way to keep franchises visible and generate revenue in the gaps. Russell’s view is that the better path is to protect the original spirit by moving forward instead of circling back. For players who still love the pulp adventure of the early Uncharted games, that argument may land with particular force. A new story set in Drake’s earlier years could deliver the tone and energy they remember without the risk of altering what already works.
As Naughty Dog continues work on its next major release, the question of how to handle its older catalogs will likely keep coming up. Russell has offered one clear answer from someone who helped build those foundations: leave the first game alone and make something new.