Will we ever get a fifth 'Uncharted' game for Playstation? Naughty Dog teases 'never say never'

Nathan Drake is having a major renaissance on both game consoles and in theaters, thanks to a new PlayStation 5 bundle that updates his most recent adventures just before Tom Holland suits up for a live action Uncharted origin story on the big screen. The timing of this week's PS5 release of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is all about getting players back into the swashbuckling swing of things, just ahead of next month’s movie debut.

But, as Naughty Dog veteran Shaun Escayg recently hinted, the Legacy of Thieves Collection might not even be the last we see of Nathan Drake (or his treasure-hunting pals) on consoles. Speaking with Gamesradar+ for a look at the new bundle (which includes remastered, 4K performance-enhanced versions of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy), Escayg said the iconic studio can’t rule out a fifth mainline installment somewhere down the line.

“I think we can say for certain that we can never say never,” he confessed. “Yeah. Uncharted is a franchise we love — that the studio loves. I love, and Kurt [Margenau, director on The Lost Legacy] loves. It's a world we want to see more of. So I can certainly say that.”

That’s as detailed as Escayg was willing to get, but it also reflects the studio’s current thinking on how Uncharted perhaps fits in with Naughty Dog’s other major franchises. Via VGC, the studio is guiding the completion of a PS5 remaster of its original 2013 smash The Last of Us, which reportedly could release in the second half of this year. And in the case of both Uncharted and The Last of Us (which is in development as an HBO series), Sony and Naughty Dog have thrown their full support behind live action screen adaptations that are sure to keep both franchises fresh on fans’ minds.

Though Escayg and Margenau haven’t been directly involved in Sony’s upcoming Uncharted film, there’s an eternal appeal to Nathan Drake’s Indiana Jones-like gift for finding the fun silver lining in the high-stakes world of diving for forbidden treasure.

“Uncharted is about heart, it's about struggles, it's about complex characters and seeing them persevere, and I think that struggle is in all of us,” Escayg explained. “Being light-hearted and being able to laugh at certain things during these epic adventures when you're trapped and enemies are firing at you, and you still have witty banter. That's the special sauce of Uncharted, it just makes you want to go back for more. You just enjoy the world so much.”

Early game critics are enjoying the new Uncharted PS5 bundle like it’s basically a whole new pair of games. The Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection currently sits at an impressive 87 aggregate review score at Metacritic, with 66 reviewers weighing in. PlayStation has been using its social channels as well as the gaming-focused PlayStation Blog to make sure fans of the games are equally geared up for Holland’s movie debut, so the crossover potential of Sony’s shared-DNA Uncharted universe has never been more ripe.

Check out Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for PS5 starting today, while we wait for Holland and costar Mark Wahlberg as Sully to hit the big screen when the Uncharted movie debuts on Feb. 18.