Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet kan vara Naughty Dogs dyraste titel – med en budget på 600 miljoner dollar

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the new IP from The Last of Us developers, Naughty Dog, is easily one of the most anticipated games of the coming years. The studio has built a reputation as one of the best in the business when it comes to direction and emotionally driven storytelling, so it's no surprise a lot of gamers expect Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet to be a significant leap forward across the board. And judging by the project's early budget numbers, it genuinely looks like the most ambitious thing Naughty Dog has ever made.

Amid ongoing uncertainty around the release date and the lack of official updates that come with it, well-known insider and gaming interviewer Kiwi Talkz has claimed the game is unlikely to be postponed to 2028 —in fact, he hinted a release could come as soon as next year. According to the interviewer, the budget for Naughty Dog's new IP has already hit $600 million, and another delay would likely hurt the game's potential profits. For context, The Last of Us Part II, the studio's most recent release, had a budget of $220 million. You can check out Kiwi Talkz's statement below:

I think it's highly unlikely that Intergalactic gets delayed from 2027 to 2028 because that will start pushing the budget into the $600 million dollar range which makes it extremely hard for the game to be profitable.

When you weigh up the operational cost of ND per employee its ridiculously expensive (base salary, employee benefits, commercial lease, IT support, software licenses, water, power etc.) multiply that by the core team of 250 devs over 6 years and then include outsourcing and marketing you are looking at $400-500 million dollars.

The realities of game development in the U.S. for AAA now.

Previously, Kiwi Talkz already shared that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is targeting a 2027 release; recently, this was also confirmed by reliable insider NateTheHate. Naughty Dog hasn’t given any comments regarding these rumors so far, and aside from the debut teaser shown at The Game Awards 2024, nothing else about the game has been revealed. If the information about a possible release next year—specifically, summer 2027—is accurate, we might potentially see new details on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet either at Gamescom 2026 later this month or, at the latest, at The Game Awards in December.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is an upcoming action-adventure PlayStation 5 exclusive, which is rumored to be twice as big as The Last of Us: Part 2 and feature RPG elements. The release date for Naughty Dog’s latest title remains unknown for now.