Naughty Dog recently admitted that "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" will be the last game with Nathan Drake in the lead role.

In an interview with Kotaku, lead game designer Robert Cogburn explained that progressing Drake's storyline poses a great challenge for the studio.

"This will be our fourth Uncharted game," said Cogburn. "These games are hard to make. Particularly with a character like Nathan Drake in a world that's fairly grounded, it's a challenge to consider how much more we can expand the universe while adhering to those sorts of rules."

Cogburn added that there are also technical hurdles to consider, which may be similar to what other companies face with their own gaming franchises.

"This is gonna be the fourth time we start answering stuff like, 'How do we make hand-grabs visible? What do we do to scale the combat experience? What are the interesting puzzles we can be introducing in the moment-to-moment as the player's experiencing this narrative?'"

The developer said the studio has grown tired of answering those same kinds of questions in the same fiction. Furthermore, Naughty Dog plans to embark on new ideas and pour them into a new series.

As of the moment, "A Thief's End" seems to be the last game in the series that Naughty Dog plans to make. Would there ever be an "Uncharted" game without Nathan Drake manning the helm? Cogburn said the studio has definitely brainstormed about the series heading into outer space, but he emphasized that's not likely to actually happen.

"I can already see the scene," said a chuckling Cogburn. "Elena says, 'Where do we go now, Drake?' And Drake's like, 'THE MOON.' And then Sully's in the background saying, 'You're goddamned right we're going to the moon, kid.'"

"Uncharted" has been one of Sony's top franchises. Sales have been solid over the years with GameSpot reporting more than 21 million copies sold. An "Uncharted" movie is even underway. Its success only means another sequel is likely to be made, even if doesn't star Drake.

Just last month, Naughty Dog community strategist Arne Meyer spoke about life after "Uncharted 4." He said the studio had "at least" one, but possibly three, more games in the works for the current console generation.

"I would hope we would release a game pretty soon," Meyer told Finder. "Our development cycles aren't too long, and I have no idea how long this console generation really is going to last, but, yeah, there's no doubt it should be in this console generation for sure."

"Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" will release exclusively on PlayStation 4 starting March 18, 2016. The game's multiplayer beta, however, is out now for people who purchased "The Nathan Drake Collection."