Uncharted Remake Footage Surfaces Online Almost 10 Years On From Last Entry

Naughty Dog remains a GOAT of the gaming world, making a name for itself with the first Crash Bandicoot and going on to deliver the likes of Jak and Daxter and The Last of Us. This means there's plenty of hype for the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but let's not forget the buried treasure that is Uncharted.

If not for a pivot toward the more realistic Uncharted with 2007's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, we might not have gotten The Last of Us. Still, some 10 years after Uncharted 4: A Thief's End blew up the PS4 as the best-selling Uncharted entry, the franchise feels like it's lost without a treasure map.

Could we finally see Naughty Dog bite the bullet and do what Capcom did with Resident Evil by giving us remakes as we wait for the inevitable next game?

Uncharted Remake Found In The Last of Us Part II

Of all the places to unearth an Uncharted remake, the backend of The Last of Us Part II might seem like an unusual place to start looking. Speaking during the Sacred Symbols podcast, Michael Kemp claimed that Visual Arts was working on a remake of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune around 2018 or 2019.

Both the mythical remake and The Last of Us Part II were supposedly working on the same engine, with Visual Arts showing what it could do by reworking the "Plane-wrecked" chapter, where Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher are shot down over a mysterious island.

The scene was remade with graphics similar to Uncharted 4, but with Visual Arts only being a support studio, the team's small size, and the fact that the game would need a massive overhaul of its mechanics and set pieces are all said to have contributed to things falling apart. Added to this, Kemp says he doesn't know whether the Drake's Fortune remake was even given the green light, only that the specific plane-crash rework can be found in The Last of Us Part II's files.

He concluded: "I don't know if they ever picked it back up or if they have any interest in doing that, but they have at least tried once in the past. So, I could see them trying to do it again."

READ MORE: Uncharted 4 Cut Content Surfaces Online, Changes Everything

Why Isn't There An Uncharted Remake?

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Kemp's scoop leads on from a 2021 Bloomberg article where Jason Schreier said that although Visual Arts had been tinkering with Drake's Fortune, the "idea quickly fizzled because it would be expensive and require too much added design work." Instead, there was the brilliant brainwave to remake 2013's The Last of Us and package it with Part II. This actually makes sense, with Schreier reiterated: "In theory, this would be a less expensive proposition than remaking Uncharted, since The Last of Us was more modern and wouldn’t require too many gameplay overhauls."

Even though Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection revisited the early games for PS4, and Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection gave later entries a lick of paint on the PS5, the lack of a full remake for the OG feels like a missed opportunity.

We've previously banged the drum for an Uncharted Trilogy remake, and in the aftermath of the first three God of War games getting this treatment, it's definitely more possible. Sadly, Sony's shuttering of Bluepoint Games (responsible for The Nathan Drake Collection) in February 2026 feels like another nail in the coffin.

Sony seems hellbent on finding ways to rerelease The Last of Us games, but as it's easily the bigger IP, Uncharted has been left to gather dust. Although we imagine the lacklustre response to Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted movie won't have helped, the fact that a sequel was confirmed in June 2024 could breathe new life into the franchise.

In the meantime, we'll have to make do with cryptic teases that Uncharted 5 could finally be on the way.