Naughty Dog, LLC (formerly JAM Software, Inc.) is an American company that creates video games for Sony. It is based in Santa Monica, California. The company was founded in 1984 by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. In 2001, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired Naughty Dog. Gavin and Rubin created a series of increasingly successful games, including Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior in the early 1990s. The success of Way of the Warrior led Universal Interactive Studios to sign Gavin and Rubin to a three-game contract and fund the company’s growth.
After designer and producer Mark Cerny encouraged Naughty Dog to develop a character-based platform game that would use the 3D features of new systems, the company created Crash Bandicoot for the PlayStation in 1996. Naughty Dog released three Crash Bandicoot games over the next few years. Following the development of Crash Team Racing, the company began creating Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the PlayStation 2.
In 2004, Gavin and Rubin left Naughty Dog to start a new Internet company called Flektor. In addition to its in-house game team, Naughty Dog also manages the ICE Team, a key technology group within PlayStation Studios. The company’s first PlayStation 3 game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, was released in 2007, followed by several sequels and related games. This continued until Naughty Dog introduced a new intellectual property, The Last of Us, for the PlayStation 3. Developed by a secondary team at the studio, The Last of Us was released in 2013 and received widespread praise, leading to a successful franchise. The Last of Us Part II was released for the PlayStation 4 in 2020 and also received high praise. Naughty Dog is currently working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet for the PlayStation 5.
History
Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin met as young teenagers in 1982 at a weekend Hebrew school in Virginia. They discovered they both liked computers and video games, and they often talked about programming, game development, and game piracy during class. After trying out Lisp and C++ programming, Rubin and Gavin worked with a friend named Mike Goyet to start JAM Software in 1984. The name "JAM" originally stood for "Jason, Andy, and Mike." However, when Goyet stopped working on the company, Rubin and Gavin bought his share for about $100 and changed the name to "Jason and Andy's Magic." They decided to create software for the Apple II and made a skiing game for their second title. During development, Gavin accidentally copied pirated games over the only copy of the skiing game they had. Rubin quickly created a new skiing game called Ski Crazed (originally titled Ski Stud) in one weekend. The game played slowly, so Gavin reprogrammed it to move faster. Later, the game was collected and published by Baudville, who bought it from JAM Software for $250. Ski Crazed sold more than 1,000 copies. Rubin and Gavin also created an Apple IIGS graphic adventure game called Dream Zone, which was released in 1988 and adapted for the Atari ST, Amiga, and PCs.
In 1989, Rubin and Gavin released a game titled Keef the Thief, which was published by Electronic Arts for the Apple IIGS, Amiga, and PCs. To start fresh and end their relationship with Baudville, they renamed JAM Software to Naughty Dog on September 9, 1989. Naughty Dog also created and developed Rings of Power, which was published by Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis in 1991. Rubin and Gavin worked with programmer Vijay Pande on the title. Pande later became known for managing a research project called Folding@home at Stanford University.
In 1994, Rubin and Gavin made a game for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer called Way of the Warrior and showed it to Mark Cerny of Universal Interactive Studios. Cerny liked the game and signed Naughty Dog to create three more games for Universal. Rubin and Gavin planned to make a three-dimensional action-platform game. Because players would need to look at the character’s back constantly, they jokingly called the project "Sonic's Ass Game."
Development began in 1994, and Naughty Dog hired more employees and created a tool called Game Oriented Object Lisp to design characters and gameplay. Cartoonists Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson helped create the game’s characters, including the main character, Crash Bandicoot. After 14 months of work, the game was shown to Sony Computer Entertainment, who agreed to publish it. Crash Bandicoot was first shown to the public at E3 and became one of the best-selling PlayStation games, selling over 6.8 million copies. Naughty Dog later made two more Crash Bandicoot games and a spin-off kart racing game called Crash Team Racing.
Sony bought Naughty Dog in 2001 and made them a first-party studio. According to Gavin in 2025, the main reason Naughty Dog wanted to sell the company was because the cost of making high-quality video games had risen greatly. Their first games in the 1980s had budgets of about $50,000, but Crash Bandicoot cost $1.5 million. Gavin said Sony’s purchase gave the company the stability it needed to keep making games.
As part of Sony, Naughty Dog first made the first game in the Jak and Daxter series. These games were as successful as the Crash Bandicoot games. During the development of Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing, Rubin and Gavin gradually handed leadership to Evan Wells and Stephen White, who became co-presidents by the time the founders left the studio. White was later replaced by Christophe Balestra.
In 2007, Naughty Dog released the Uncharted series, which focused on realistic worlds and characters, unlike the fictional settings of Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. The Uncharted series was praised for its movie-like quality and technical skills, and it sold over 41 million copies worldwide as of December 2017.
At the 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards, Naughty Dog introduced a new game called The Last of Us, described as a "post-apocalyptic third-person action-adventure game." The game follows a teenage girl named Ellie and her adult protector, Joel, in a world overrun by people infected with a disease similar to one caused by Cordyceps unilateralis. The Last of Us received widespread praise after its release. In 2012 and 2013, Naughty Dog partnered with Mass Media Inc. to release the Jak and Daxter Collection, which included high-definition versions of the original PlayStation 2 trilogy for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. In May 2013, Naughty Dog confirmed it would continue using its in-house engine for Uncharted and The Last of Us on the PlayStation 4.
On November 23, 2013, Corrinne Yu, a principal engine architect at Microsoft’s Halo 4 developer 343 Industries, joined Naughty Dog. On December 7, 2013, Naughty Dog won the Studio of the Year award at the first edition of Spike’s VGX award show for The Last of Us. In March 2014, Uncharted lead writer Amy Hennig left the studio, followed by Uncharted 3 director Justin Richmond and The Last of Us lead artist Nate Wells. Later, it was announced that The Last of Us would be released on the PlayStation 4 as a remastered version.
In March 2017, Balestra announced he would retire as co-president on April 3, 2017, after working at the company for 15 years. Evan Wells remained as president. In September 2017, game director Bruce Straley left Naughty Dog, saying
Games developed
Naughty Dog is a company owned by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is most famous for creating games for PlayStation consoles. Some of its well-known games include the Crash Bandicoot series for the original PlayStation, Jak and Daxter for PlayStation 2, and Uncharted and The Last of Us for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Before these, Naughty Dog also made games such as Dream Zone, Keef the Thief, Rings of Power, and Way of the Warrior.
Development philosophy
Naughty Dog is known for its special way of making video games. The company does not have a producer in either of its teams and has very few managers.
Naughty Dog is part of the ICE Team, which is a group within Sony's World Wide Studios. The name ICE originally meant Initiative for a Common Engine, which shows what the team was first created to do. The ICE Team works on important graphics tools used in Sony's first-party games. These tools include basic parts of game engines, ways to process graphics, tools that help make games, and tools that check and fix graphics problems. The ICE Team also helps outside game developers by providing engine parts and tools that analyze, check, and fix graphics issues on PlayStation hardware. These tools help developers make games that run better on PlayStation systems.
Awards
Naughty Dog won the Studio of the Year award at the 2013 VGX , the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards , and the 2020 Golden Joystick Awards.