Yesterday the internet went slightly buzzy when news that an Australian classification website had listed Uncharted; Fight for Fortune broke. It was slightly overshadowed by the US Presidential election, but we almost certainly don’t need to worry too much about, as this is not the Uncharted 4 announcement that we have been waiting for. We should be able to celebrate that fully if it happens.

Originally I was quite dismissive of the idea that there might be another Uncharted game in the works (or rather that this was it) as alarm bells rang at several points; not least how clumsily it was posted, but also at the ‘G’ rating given to it. ‘G’ for ‘General’, not ’15’ for ‘you really ought to be fifteen to play this’. So what is it? The short answer is that no one knows, but initial reports were that it was in fact a casino type game. I lost all interest.

Bear with me.

I could not fathom how this would work; Nathan and chums are not exactly known for their love of gambling. Perhaps they indulge from time to time, but I think is is fair to say that it hasn’t really been a big feature of the Uncharted experience so far. There was a moment (thankfully brief) when I considered that Uncharted had been sold and would now be subjected to whatever the highest bidder wanted. But my faith in the integrity of Naughty Dog soon quashed that worry, and I remembered seeing somewhere (I really should bookmark quotes that might one day come in handy) one of the Dogs saying that Amy Hennig would likely not be all that impressed should any of them tout the ever hilarious Unkarted game to her. If Unkarted wouldn’t get by her somehow I doubt she would be particularly open to Uncarded, either.

The niggling feeling that something is afoot won’t go away, though. Why is the listing “Uncharted”? It isn’t exactly a common word, and not one that any self respecting game maker would use without knowing that it would be stepping on some pretty big toes. Could it simply be an error? Maybe.

But.

We have been reminded that Uncharted; Golden Abyss was at some point “going to have some DLC“, and multiplayer added. The DLC idea never really got off the ground, as it seemed more like speculation than anything else, fuelled by the posting of this image online;

Probably is legit, but the text at the bottom right is not the same as the text that my Vita imprints on screenshots. Only very mildly skeptical, though.

Apparently a glitch… or could *this* be what is in the works? Sony Bend (makers of Golden Abyss) is not behind Fight for Fortune, but perhaps this is a feature of Golden Abyss that never got finished, and has been passed on. I am not entirely sure, as there was already a lot to Golden Abyss; taking this on would have been… well… frankly a bit crazy in the first place. However, a card battle or trading game is much more appetizing than a casino game. It would be interesting to see a bona fide Uncharted game with entirely different mechanics; a different end goal, but all set within the world as created. I have no idea how that would work; maybe we could be working towards raising funds for the next expedition (UNCHARTED 4!) through trading artefacts found.

To be honest, that is pretty much all we have so far; an old screen shot from a different game, a dubious listing and some wild speculation. But we will keep an eye out for any other news and report back. The one final thing that is bugging me is that the original listing mentioned it being multi-platform, whereas all the rest of the speculation is talking only of the Vita. I guess we could be seeing a PSN/PS Vita title? Maybe perhaps.

I’ve contacted my chum at Sony Bend. I very much doubt he will be in a position to shed any light on this, but if he does I will let you know. Thanks also to Tom Goulden for ferreting out some links for me. You are a star.