Jak and Daxter is an action-adventure platformer third-person shooter video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The series was originally developed by Naughty Dog with a number of installments being outsourced to Ready at Dawn and High Impact Games.

The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released on December 4, 2001, was one of the earliest titles for the PlayStation 2, and the series collectively is regarded as a defining franchise for the console.

The series is set in a fictional universe that incorporates science fantasy, steampunk, cyberpunk, and mystical elements, while centering on the eponymous characters as they try to uncover the secrets of their world, and unravel the mysteries left behind by an ancient race called the Precursors.

The games are inspired by a combination of Eastern and Western culture, a decision made among the team members at Naughty Dog and related stakeholders while developing the first title.

After Daxter falls into a Dark Eco silo at the forbidden Misty Island, he is transformed from a human into an ottsel, a fictional hybrid of an otter and weasel.

In a quest to return Daxter to human form, he and Jak set out to find the Dark Eco sage Gol Acheron.

In exchange, Jak and Daxter must now prove their worth to Damas and the city or risk being banished and thrown back into the desert.

The game primarily focuses on Daxter, taking place during the two-year gap introduced in the opening of Jak II.

Daxter is now employed as a pest exterminator by the Kridder Ridder company, in which he works to mitigate the incoming metal bug invasion.

[10] Mass Media Games later ported the collection to the PlayStation Vita and it was released in June 2013—the franchise's only appearance on this platform.

With the exception of The Precursor Legacy, each installment offers "Hero Mode", which allows a player to replay the game at a higher level of difficulty with all or most of their previous acquisitions.

They then developed a fully articulated character to examine the engine's efficiency, before presenting the idea to Sony Computer Entertainment following the completion of Crash Team Racing.

[15] The aim of their new title was to break away from the linear approach taken in the Crash Bandicoot series, with minimal story and character development, and individually loaded levels.

The game's soundtrack was recorded at Mutato Muzika Studios, and was produced by Mark Mothersbaugh with Josh Mancell composing the score.

[20] The team ultimately produced a tech demo, and had plans to allow players the ability to "create your own airships and cobble together all these things with these different stat bonuses and actually have meaningful engagements in the air".

[20] Following the lackluster success of the game, Thompson expressed the company's disappointment with the execution of The Lost Frontier, commenting "I'm not happy with that being Jak's swan song.

The first game takes place in a world brimming with various natural environments that are encompassed by village settlements, and ancient Precursor ruins and elements can be found riddled throughout the landscape.

Five Jak and Daxter soundtracks have been commercially released and have featured several composers, including Mark Mothersbaugh, Josh Mancell, Larry Hopkins, Billy Howerdel, and James Dooley.

The compositions were inspired by world music, with Mancell commenting that he intended "to create something other than an expected orchestral flavoured fantasy soundtrack.

[23] With physical and digital copies combined, the Jak and Daxter franchise has sold over 15 million games worldwide (as of April 2017).

The Lost Frontier also only had mixed reception and, not including the PlayStation Vita port of Jak and Daxter Collection, it has the lowest score in the series from Metacritic (71/100).

Matt Helgeson of Game Informer noted that the "series was driven by a restless sense of innovation," praising "Naughty Dog's work in this franchise [for creating] great characters, finely tuned gameplay, and a unceasing inventiveness".

[37] Matulef further stated that "the Jak and Daxter series remains a fascinating document of the evolution of the action adventure; its heroes are unstuck in time, without a genre to call home.

No series has been so willing to switch gameplay styles with such reckless abandon, and The Jak and Daxter Trilogy represents a shining example of what happens when a capable developer takes a huge risk.

[46] In response to an alleged concept art leak in 2016, Naughty Dog's Director of Communication Arne Meyer stated that nothing was currently being worked on.

[47] In 2019, Limited Run Games announced a commemorative mock case for the unreleased Jak and Daxter reboot, which was released in June 2020.

The case, in addition to a digital theme code, was given to consumers who purchased all four Jak and Daxter titles directly from the Limited Run Games website.

[48] In February 2022, a Jak and Daxter film adaptation was rumored to be in development with Ruben Fleischer and Naughty Dog, although as of 2024, nothing has been confirmed.