Naughty Dog Dev Concedes It Will Be “Really Hard” To Continue Nathan Drake’s Story After Uncharted 4

Evidence continues to mount that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will act as the swan song for one Nathan Drake.

As though the subtitle itself wasn’t already a canary in a coal mine, the sequel’s Co-Director Neil Druckmann recently added fuel to the fires of speculation when speaking with The Sun, where he teased that continuing the story of the aforementioned treasure hunter could prove “really hard” by the time the credits roll on A Thief’s End.

For Druckmann, it was a creative decision birthed out of a desire to send out Drake while he’s on the top of his game, claiming that “he’s at the height of his popularity, so it’s not a good business decision. But I feel like the best way to honour him is to go out on top, to finish his story.”

One thing worth bearing in mind for those ardent fans of Uncharted is that Sony owns the IP, and when you factor in the sales figures for the franchise, continuing to release future iterations of the series beyond A Thief’s End seems nigh on inevitable.

Even still, Druckmann cautioned that spinning a new swashbuckling adventure from Uncharted 4 will be no meant feat, and strongly suggested that another cocksure explorer may have to pick up the torch: “But with the end of this story, it will be really hard to do a sequel with Nathan Drake.”

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was recently pushed out of its March release window to April 26, and we’re hoping against hope that no major spoilers slip between the cracks ahead of time.