Ex-Naughty Dog staff form new studio

Ex-Naughty Dog staffers, Vinit Agarwal and Joe Pettinati, have taken to form a new studio that is currently developing a multiplayer cinematic video game.

Agarwal and Pettinati spoke with Game*Spark (via Automaton), with the former saying he left the studio as he saw potential in making multiplayer games with Naughty Dog’s action prowess. He worked on stuff for both the Uncharted series and The Last of Us Part 2’s canceled multiplayer mode.

The game is developed at two bases, Agarwal has taken to calling Japan home while Pettinati remains in the US. Whatever the studio does, though, it’ll likely have some sort of Naughty Dog-level worldbuilding and narrative, as the studio’s approach to that stuff is a big inspiration to the duo. Meanwhile, we may someday see inspirations from other games as he is also inspired by Japanese games like FromSoft’s Soulsborne franchise.

The big goal is blending AAA-cinematic flair with fast-paced storytelling akin to indies. Currently, though, the studio isn’t ready to show anything, but we know it’s built in Unreal Engine 5 and internal playtesting is set to happen soon.

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger Editor-in-Chief

Gabe has been a gamer since he was young, playing games like Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, Guitar Hero, and whatever looked cool on GameFly. Ever since 2018, he’s been infatuated with the inner workings of the gaming and entertainment industries, covering a wide range of topics from video games to TV and film. Starting as a contributor for PSX Extreme, he’s worked his way up to its Managing Editor. Using what’s he learned over the years, he founded Smash Jump to remind everyone to smash jump.