Naughty Dog was sold to Sony because the "stress of ballooning budgets was enormous" says co-founder

Naughty Dog co-founder Andrew Gavin has opened up about why the studio was acquired by Sony back in 2001.

In a lengthy post on LinkedIn, Gavin cited the spiralling costs of game development as one of the reasons the studio was sold, saying “a systemic issue in the AAA space” wherein developers “almost never have the resources to fund their own games […] gives publishers enormous leverage”.

“Why did we sell Naughty Dog? It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times. The answer is simple: budgets were skyrocketing,” Gavin – who worked at Naughty Dog for almost 20 years before leaving in 2004 – said (via Gameranx).