Naughty Dog head and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann is back in the news teasing what’s to come for the studio, and apparently there are multiple projects in the works.
In an interview with the LA Times published over the weekend, Druckmann said that he doesn’t expect Naughty Dog to continue being The Last of Us studio “forever.” Instead, he dsicussed how the team is working on “multiple single-player projects.” The interview doesn’t go into detail about whether these games are in development or are just concepts.
The short feature also describes how Druckmann had the idea for The Last of Us while in college and had initially wanted it to be a graphic novel. He was able to work on his idea after going to ex-Naughty Dog co-President Evan Wells and asking to be taken off a Jak and Daxter project.
While it’s unclear what Naughty Dog’s next announced project will be (it recently canceled its The Last of Us online multiplayer game after years of development), Druckmann has done a lot anticipation building. While a recent Sony interview where he talked about the future of video game development at Naughty Dog was eventually retracted for misquotes, he posted one of his unredacted answers on X (formerly Twitter), reflecting on how he’s excited about an upcoming studio title.
“So, I’m not only excited for this game that we’re making — and it’s, it’s something really fresh for us — but I’m also excited to see how the world reacts to it,” he wrote. “Because of The Last of Us, and the success of the show, people even outside of gaming are looking at us to see what it is that we put out next. I’m very excited to see what the reaction for this thing will be — and I’ve already said too much about it.”
We also know that as of May 2023, the studio had been working on a “brand new single-player experience” as part of its project list. So whatever it is, rest assured that Naughty Dog is working on something.
