Sony reportedly cancelled Uncharted Remake for The Last of Us Part 1

Recent datamining efforts have uncovered further evidence that Sony previously explored a full remake of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, with references and assets buried inside The Last of Us Part II and The Last of Us Part I’s development files. These findings support earlier leaks suggesting that a small slice of the original Uncharted was rebuilt internally before the project was ultimately cancelled.

Speaking to Last Stand Media, dataminer Thekempy explained that Sony’s Visual Arts Support Group experimented with the remake around 2018–2019. According to the discussion, the team rebuilt the plane‑to‑island sequence from Drake’s Fortune using Uncharted 4‑level visuals as a proof‑of‑concept. This test scene was created in the same engine used for The Last of Us Part II, which is why fragments of it later appeared in that game’s files.

“They actually made a tiny little slice of the game… Nate and Elena going to the island in Sully’s plane, getting shot down and parachuting out,” Thekempy said. “They remade that with Uncharted 4’s graphics as a test.”

Earlier datamining already pointed to this exact sequence, with code referencing the plane scene found inside The Last of Us Part II. As shown in a previous leak, the files directly reference the remake slice. A new leak posted this week appears to show additional assets tied to the same internal effort, as highlighted in the latest datamine.

Ultimately, the remake did not move forward. According to the podcast discussion, Naughty Dog decided that Drake’s Fortune would require extensive modernisation across its levels and set‑pieces to meet current expectations. Instead, Visual Arts shifted to The Last of Us Part I, a remake many fans criticised as unnecessary, given the original game’s strong visuals and its existing PS4 remaster.

KitGuru Says: The crazy part about this is that of all Naughty Dog's games, Uncharted 1 would have benefitted from a full remake the most. The other Uncharted games have aged better than the first, so a bit more effort would have been required, but it would have gone down with fans a lot better than *another* re-release of The Last of Us. 

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