Within the past few years, PlayStation may have at one point entertained the idea of recreating some of its most beloved properties in new, modern iterations that would utilize today’s technology. This information comes by way of a former Sony employee who has recently started talking a bit about some of the secretive work that he did in his time at one PlayStation studio.
Speaking to David Jaffe, the previous director of titles like God of War and Twisted Metal, Michael Mumbauer, a former head at Sony San Diego Studio, talked a bit about what his role was at the developer while he was there. Mumbauer’s main position at first was to lead a visual arts group that would provide support to other Sony studios, but over time, this began to change.
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Mumbauer explained that during Shawn Layden’s tenure as the head of SIE Worldwide Studios, the one-time boss was very much interested in exploring remakes and remasters for current hardware. Mumbauer specifically pointed to the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy as an example of one such project that Layden apparently helped get the ball rolling on. As this initiative gained larger traction within Sony as a whole, Mumbauer explained that a new development team at Sony San Diego was then put together to seemingly pursue this venture.
“Remakes and remasters were the things I was chasing after. So that’s why the dev team was built,” Mumbauer said in the conversation. “What I can tell you is that’s what I was chasing because I believed that there was value in doing something like a remake of God of War at the visual fidelity of today. Or, a remake of Uncharted 1 at the visual fidelity of today.”
It’s worth noting that Mumbauer never outright said that his team at Sony San Diego Studio began proper work on a PlayStation remake of any sort. Instead, he just notes that it was something he was at one point very much looking into. It’s also uncertain if Mumbauer was just using God of War and Uncharted as generalized examples of potential remakes or if they were properties that he may have actively looked into recreating.
If this was at one point something that was transpiring at Sony San Diego, it doesn’t seem to be the case any longer. Even though Mumbauer is no longer with the studio, this secretive dev team, which still exists and is comprised of around 200 people in total, is now said to be working on an unknown new title. Some have theorized that this project might be Uncharted 5, but this has yet to be proven true.
All in all, it’s pretty fascinating to know that PlayStation might have seriously looked into some major remakes like this a few years back. While titles like MediEvil, Shadow of the Colossus, and Parappa the Rapper were remade or remastered, it would have been interesting to see this same treatment given to some more prominent titles.
So what do you think? Would you be down to see more remakes and remasters of some of the most popular PlayStation games from yesteryear making a return on PS5? As usual, you can give me your thoughts either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
