Naughty Dog once had a very different name

From JAM Software to Naughty Dog

Before the name became associated with a major game studio, Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin released their early interactive titles as JAM Software. The change to Naughty Dog marks a shift in the label attached to their work: a name used for early projects gave way to the identity the studio would become known by.

A name is part of a studio’s history

For a small game-making partnership, the company name is more than a title on a box. It tells players and the industry who made a game, and it can carry forward as the team takes on new projects. JAM Software belongs to the pair’s early chapter; Naughty Dog is the name under which their later identity took shape.

That makes the old name a useful clue to the studio’s beginnings: before Naughty Dog was an established name, it was two founders putting interactive work into the world under a different banner.