From their humble beginnings of designing games with their Apple IIs, Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin paved the way for a massive gaming empire. Naughty Dog is one of the heavy hitters in the AAA gaming industry, with a lineage of titles that pushed the boundaries in visuals, presentation, and technical proficiency.
Even with further console generations, this old dog has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to learn new tricks. Unfortunately, no developer, not even one as mighty as Naughty Dog, is entirely without fault. Despite being one of the industry giants, the company's occasional blunders have put them in the doghouse now and then.
10 Naughty Dog Opted To Remove Tawna Instead Of Redesigning Her
Tawna was introduced in the original Crash Bandicoot as the damsel in distress who the eponymous marsupial must rescue. Unfortunately, Universal Interactive felt she was too salacious for a children's franchise, prompting Naughty Dog to remove her from subsequent titles quietly.
Despite fan speculation, Jason Rubin claims that Crash's younger sister Coco was never meant as a replacement for Tawna, and expressed his regret that the two did not coexist in the second game. Fortunately, Tawna would reappear in the N-Sane Trilogy, Nitro-Fueled, and Crash 4 – sporting less promiscuous redesigns.
9 Jason Rubin Regrets Jak's Characterization In The First Game
Despite being relatively pleased with the final result, Jason Rubin regretted some of the design by committee approach when designing the main character Jak. Each branch of Sony had a hand in consulting the character, with the Japanese division voicing their preference for a more human design.
In addition, many staff members had previously worked on Gex, who was criticized for his constant one-liners. To avoid creating distance between the player and the protagonist, Rubin opted to make Jak mute – a choice he also regretted. Ironically, Rubin found Daxter to be a more endearing character because he was more a product of a singular vision.
8 The Uncharted Movie Is Another Terrible Adaption
The live-action adaptation of Naughty Dog's action platforming franchise is yet another entry in the long list of terrible movies based on video games. Following a troubled development period of 14 years that saw the departure of several directors, including Bumblebee's Travis Knight and Dan Trachtenberg of The Boys fame, the live-action Uncharted flick starring Tom Holland and Mark Whalberg was panned by fans and critics.
Despite poor reviews, director Ruben Fleischer claimed that both Naughty Dog and the voice of Nathan Drake, Nolan North, worked closely on the film every step of the way.
7 Jak II Flopped Overseas
Crash Bandicoot was one of the rare instances of a Western game property that saw massive success in Japanese markets. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy received the "Gold Prize" in Japan for sales of over 500,000 units, but it failed to match Crash's success. In addition, Grand Theft Auto III's success changed the industry's expectations.
Jason Rubin asked former Sony President Shuhei Yoshida whether or not to continue Jak & Daxter. Yoshida voiced his support for the series, prompting Naughty Dog to make some changes with the sequel. Unfortunately, Jak II's darker tone alienated Japanese gamers, leading to the sequels staying overseas.
6 Penta Penguin's Placeholder Lines Were Left In Crash Team Racing
Deep in Naughty Dog's final foray into the Crash series was a secret unlockable character that even testers didn't know about. In Crash Team Racing, players can unlock Penta Penguin by inputting a special code at the main menu. However, this secrecy may have led to a notable blunder.
The story goes that when modeler Rob Titus got a copy of the game, his first instinct was to unlock every character. But, to his horror, when he played as Penta, he heard programmer Gavin James' voice deliver the placeholder line "Penguin Yay One." Unfortunately, it was too late to fix this error.
5 Jak X's Memory Card Bug Nearly Broke The Game
Early copies of Jak X Combat Racing were left with a bug that corrupted players' memory cards while auto-saving. In many cases, the bug would fill the memory card with unusable data that could not be erased or moved. The only way players could circumvent this issue was to remove the memory card during gameplay and save manually from the menu.
It apparently got so bad that Sony went as far as to offer affected players a free copy of Jak X, a new memory card, and one free copy from a selection of SOCOM: Navy SEALs titles in exchange for their glitched game.
4 Way of the Warrior Shows That Everyone Has To Start Somewhere
Naughty Dog's first CD-based title is, unfortunately, their most embarrassing. The 3DO was oversaturated with terrible interactive movie titles that were barely even games, so Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin had the approach to bring a genre to a platform that was lacking it.
While their intentions were noble, the final product is little more than an inferior carbon copy of another violent fighting game franchise. Regardless, it did attract the attention of Universal, who later signed them on a three-game deal, which led to Crash. Nevertheless, Jason Rubin would later apologize to Ed Boon for ripping off Mortal Kombat.
3 Universal Is The Reason Naughty Dog Lost Their Beloved Marsupial
Before Naughty Dog partnered with Sony, they made deals with several publishers, such as EA and Universal Interactive. Universal picked up Naughty Dog's Way of the Warrior when it didn't have a publisher and helped produce Crash Bandicoot. However, Naughty Dog only received a fraction of the games' profits and was often denied the time or resources they needed to develop their titles.
According to Andy Gavin, no one at Universal except for Mark Cerny knew anything about video games. Attracted by Sony's developer deal, Naughty Dog made the reluctant decision to leave Universal and Crash to move on to greener pastures.
2 Developmental Problems Plagued Jak & Daxter The Lost Frontier
When transitioning to the PlayStation 3, Naughty Dog was split into two groups. One group was assigned to work on the next entry in the Jak & Daxter series for the PSP, while the other was working on a little title known as Uncharted. Neil Druckman, who would later helm The Last of Us, served as a designer for Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.
However, the transition to the PlayStation 3 proved to be more difficult than previously thought, prompting many employees to quit. The Lost Frontier team was then asked to work on Uncharted, while the abandoned Jak & Daxter title was assigned to High Impact Games.
1 The Last of Us Part 2 Polarized Critics
While many of the complaints towards the sequel were just petulant grumblings from "anti-SJWs" upset that a big-budget game would have the audacity to feature a lesbian protagonist, there were criticisms made in good faith. Harris Michael Brewis mocked the game's message, quipping, "Oh, was it bad to murder a bunch of people - with a knife?" Jim Stephanie Sterling claimed it "lovingly simulates detailed brutal violence and stops every now and then to feel sad about it."
One of the harshest reviews came from Yahtzee Croshaw who accused Ellie of lacking character growth and criticized the supporting cast for validating her blind pursuit towards revenge.