Naughty Dog reveals reasoning behind Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End delay

Ever since Naughty Dog and Sony made it clear that Uncharted 4: A Thief's End couldn't have released in 2015 no matter how much money was thrown at it, the developers have been standing by the move to March 2016. The reason for the delay came from the high standards of the team working on it, and the standards that gamers expect from the series.

Neil Druckmann, Uncharted 4's Co-director has come forward with new information regarding the delay that falls in line with previous statements, but also adds a little more clarity.  Speaking with OPM (via GamesRadar), Druckmann revealed that Naughty Dog knew delay would be met with disappointment – but the devs simply couldn't skimp on Nathan Drake's last game.

"It was going to disappoint [fans] to push this thing back," he said. "But this is the last chapter for Nathan Drake, so let's give ourselves as much time as possible and go all-out for this series."

What did the team go 'all-out' on? The ending. The crew at Naughty Dog apparently want Drake to go out with a bang.

"Even when I'm describing the ending, it's a pretty… Well, I guess this is a little bit of a spoil… Nah, I'm not going to say it! But there is something that happens that requires quite a bit of work for what we want it to do," Druckmann said. "And again, we would have had to reduce that scope and reduce that ambition to meet that [original] deadline."

Uncharted 4 releases on March 18 exclusively for PS4.