Naughty Dog
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Naughty Dog, LLC
Formerly
JAM Software, Inc.
(1984–1989)
Naughty Dog, Inc.
(1989–2015)
Company
type
Industry
Founded
1984
; 42 years ago
in
, US
Founders
Headquarters
,
US
Key people
(head of
creative,
)
Alison Mori (studio
manager)
Products
(1996–1999)
(2001–2005)
(2007–2022)
(2013–present)
(forthcoming)
Number of
employees
400+
(July 2023)
(2001–05)
(2005–
present)
Website
Naughty Dog, LLC
(formerly
JAM Software, Inc.
)
is an American
based in
.
Founded by
and
in 1984,
the studio was acquired by
in 2001. Gavin and Rubin produced a sequence of progressively
more successful games, including
and
in the
early 1990s. The latter game prompted
to sign
the duo to a three-title contract and fund the expansion of the company.
After designer and producer
convinced Naughty Dog to create a
character-based
that would use the
capabilities of the new
systems, Naughty Dog created
for the
in 1996.
Naughty Dog developed three
Crash Bandicoot
games over the next several years.
After developing
, the company began working on
for the
.
In 2004, Gavin and Rubin left the company to co-found a new Internet startup
called
.
In addition to its inhouse game team, Naughty Dog is also
home to the
,
one of
's central technology
groups.
The company's first
game,
,
was released in 2007, followed by
and spin-off titles. This
lasted until Naughty Dog announced a new
for the
PlayStation 3,
, which was in development by a secondary team at
the studio and released to critical acclaim in 2013 which spawned
.
was released for the PlayStation 4 in 2020 to similar
acclaim. The studio is developing
for the
.
History
[
]
As an independent studio (1984–2001)
[
]
(left) and
(right) co-
founded Naughty Dog.
and
met as pre-teens in 1982 at a weekend
in Virginia. After they discovered a mutual interest in computers and video
games, they began regularly discussing programming, game development, and
during class.
Having experimented with
and
, Rubin and Gavin
teamed up with a friend, Mike Goyet, and founded JAM Software in 1984.
The
"JAM" stood for "Jason, Andy and Mike"; however, when Goyet
became uninterested in the work and did not contribute to JAM's
operations, Rubin and Gavin bought back his share of the company (about
US$100
) within months and the acronym was redefined as "Jason and Andy's
Magic".
Rubin and Gavin chose to create software for the
and decided to create a
game for their second title. During
production of the game, Gavin accidentally copied bootleg games over the
only copy of the skiing game they had. Rubin then created a new skiing
game called
(originally titled
Ski Stud
) within the weekend.
The game played slowly, but Gavin reprogrammed the game to play quicker.
Later, the game was gathered and published by Baudville, who bought the game from Jam Software for $250.
Ski Crazed
sold more than 1,000 copies.
Rubin and Gavin created an
titled
, which
was released in 1988 and ported to the
,
and
.
In 1989, Rubin and Gavin released a game titled
, which was published by
for the Apple
IIGS, Amiga and PCs. To make a fresh start and to dissolve their relationship with Baudville, Rubin and Gavin renamed
Jam Software as
Naughty Dog
on September 9, 1989.
Naughty Dog also created and developed
, which was
published by Electronic Arts for the
in 1991. Rubin and Gavin were joined on the title by programmer
, who would later become better known for orchestrating the
disease researching
project known as
at
.
The original logo used for
Naughty Dog
In 1994, Rubin and Gavin produced the
title
and presented it to
of
. Cerny was
pleased with
Way of the Warrior
and signed Naughty Dog on to Universal Interactive
Studios for three additional games.
Rubin and Gavin devised a plan to create a
three-dimensional
-
.
Because the player would be forced to
constantly look at the character's rear, the game was jokingly codenamed "
's Ass Game".
Production of the game began in 1994, during which Naughty Dog expanded its number of employees and invented a
development tool called Game Oriented Object Lisp, to create the characters and gameplay.
Cartoonists
and Joe Pearson were recruited to create the characters of the game, which resulted in the titular character
. After 14 months of development, the game was shown to
, who then signed on
to publish the game.
was shown to the public for the first time at
and went on to become one of the
highest-selling titles for the
console, selling over 6.8 million copies.
Naughty Dog continued to
develop two more
Crash Bandicoot
games, with a spin-off
kart racing game.
Under Sony ownership (2001–present)
[
]
Sony bought Naughty Dog and made them a first-party studio in 2001.
According to Gavin in 2025, the primary reason
Naughty Dog sought a buyer was due to the skyrocketing costs of AAA video game development from their own pockets;
their first games in the 1980s had had budgets of around $50,000, while
Crash Bandicoot
had risen to $1.5 million.
Gavin said the acquisition by Sony gave the company the stability it needed to continue development.
As Sony, Naughty Dog first developed the
of the
series.
[
]
The
Jak and Daxter
games met similar success as the
Crash Bandicoot
games. During the development of
and
games, Rubin and Gavin slowly transitioned
and Stephen White to become co-presidents of Naughty Dog by the
time the founders left the studio. White was replaced by
[
]
after a year.
[
]
In 2007, Naughty Dog released the
series, and made its first approach to realistic worlds and characters, in
contrast to its
Crash Bandicoot
and
Jak and Daxter
series, which featured fantastical worlds set in a fictional
setting. The
franchise has been praised for its cinematic quality and technical proficiency, and has sold
over 41 million copies worldwide as of December 2017.
During the 2011
, Naughty Dog unveiled a new
,
,
described as a "post-apocalyptic third-person action-adventure game", following the plight of a teenage girl, Ellie,
and her adult protector, Joel, in a post-apocalyptic United States overrun with humans infected with a disease
reminiscent of the infection caused by
.
The Last of Us
received universal acclaim upon
release.
In 2012 and 2013, Naughty Dog teamed with
to release the
. It
contains high-definition ports of the original
trilogy and was released for
and
respectively. In May 2013, Naughty Dog confirmed it will keep its existing in-house engine used in
Uncharted
and
The Last of Us
for the
.
On November 23, 2013,
, principal engine architect at
's
developer
, announced
that she had joined Naughty Dog.
On December 7, 2013, during the first edition of
's
award show, Naughty
Dog won the Studio of the Year award for its work on
The Last of Us
.
On March 4, 2014,
lead writer
left the studio,
with
Uncharted 3
director Justin Richmond and
The Last of Us
lead artist Nate Wells leaving
soon after. Later, it was revealed that
The Last of Us
would be released on the PlayStation 4 as a remastered
version.
President
In March 2017, Balestra announced that he would retire his role as co-president on April 3,
2017, after working at the company for fifteen years. Evan Wells remains in his role as
president.
In September 2017, game director
announced his departure from
Naughty Dog, stating that he "found [his] energy focusing in other directions" following a
sabbatical.
Creative director
was promoted to vice president in March
2018.
In October 2017, former environment artist David Ballard claimed that he suffered a mental breakdown after
experiencing sexual harassment by a senior team member while working at Naughty Dog in late 2015, stating that he
informed PlayStation's
department and the following day was terminated from his position and offered $20,000 to
remain silent regarding the allegations, which he declined. Naughty Dog responded to the allegations with a statement
declaring that it had "not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in
any way".
Neil Druckmann was promoted to co-president alongside Evan Wells on December 4, 2020; Alison Mori, formerly the
director of operations, and Christian Gyrling, the former co-director of programming, were promoted to co-vice
presidents in his place.
On October 4, 2021, director of communications Arne Meyer announced that he had been
promoted to co-vice president.
In July 2022,
announced his departure from Naughty Dog after 21 years
with the company.
In July 2023, Wells announced he would retire from the studio by the year's end. Simultaneously,
Druckmann became head of creative, with Mori promoted to studio manager and head of operations, Meyer to head of
culture and communications, and Gyrling to head of technology. The leadership team was expanded further, with Erick
Pangilinan and Jeremy Yates becoming co-heads of the art departments, and Anthony Newman to head of production and
design.
Gyrling departed the company after 17 years in November 2023, replaced as head of technology by Travis
McIntosh.
Games developed
[
]
Main article:
As a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, Naughty Dog is best known for developing games for the
consoles, including the
series for the original
,
on
, and
and
on
,
, and
. Before this, it also developed games
including
,
,
and
.
Year
Title
Platform(s)
1986
Math Jam
1987
1988
,
,
,
1989
Amiga, Apple IIGS, MS-DOS
1992
1994
1996
,
,
,
1997
1998
1999
2001
, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
2003
2004
2005
PlayStation 2
2007
PlayStation 3,
2009
2011
2013
PlayStation 3
2014
PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4
2016
2017
2020
2022
,
2024
TBA
PlayStation 5
Development philosophy
[
]
Naughty Dog is known for its unique way of handling game development. The studio does not have a producer in either of
its teams and relies on minimal
.
ICE Team
[
]
Naughty Dog is home to the ICE Team, one of Sony's World Wide Studios central technology groups. The term
ICE
originally stood for
Initiative for a Common Engine
, which describes the original purpose of the studio.
The ICE
Team focuses on creating core graphics technologies for Sony's worldwide
published titles, including low
level game engine components, graphics processing pipelines, supporting tools, and graphics profiling and
. The ICE Team also supports
developers with a suite of engine components, and a graphics analysis,
profiling, and debugging tool for the
. Both enable developers to get better performance out of
hardware.
Awards
[
]
Naughty Dog won the Studio of the Year award at the 2013
,
the 2013
,
and the 2020
Golden Joystick Awards.
References
[
]
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]
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