Neil Druckmann: Naughty Dog Has 'Moved On' From Uncharted - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 26 January 2023 / 4,286 Views
Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann in an interview with Buzzfeed has stated the studio has moved on from the Uncharted series and could do the same with The Last of Us in the future.
"Beyond that, I know there's a bunch of people wondering about The Last of Us Part 3 and whether that will be a thing or not," said Druckmann.
"All I could say is, at Naughty Dog we're very, very privileged that our publisher is Sony — which means Sony funds our games, supports us, and we're owned by Sony. They have supported us every step of the way to follow our passions — meaning that just because something is successful, people think there's all this pressure and we have to make a sequel. That's not the case.
"For us, Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we're able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we're done. We're moving on.
"Likewise, with The Last of Us, it's up to us whether we want to continue it or not. Our process is the same thing we did when we did Part 2, which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. If we can't come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the end."
Naughty Dog earlier this month announced The Last of Us series has sold over 37 million units worldwide. The studio is also developing a The Last of Us multiplayer game.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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No problem with that, I trust them to come up with a brand new ip that will be just as great as all the other masterpieces they have made. From Crash, to Jak, to Uncharted and Last of Us. Now if Sony wants to let another studio work on another Uncharted, or Jak in the future and let ND create new ips, I'm all for that as well.
Good. Uncharted is great, but at this point I'd like to see something new instead from Naughty Dog.
Sci-fi next! Space Opera! Do it! :)
I fully expect TLoU3.
2's ending leaves a lot to continue on, exactly like 1's.
It might take a while, but the game will come.
1 and 2 are some of the very best games ever, so yeah, can't wait for 3.
They shouldn't move on until after they release a trilogy of remasters for PS5. :)
The last of us needs another to finish Ellie arc .
After that move on from it too.
I would love naughty dog to try something more fantasy or more sci fi next but i hope the rumour about a first person r is false. I want them to keep.making third person games. We have enough first person games.
Ellie's arc is done, can't justify her killing anymore. Can only make a third game if she is not playable.
anything they make in the future will sell well no matter what franchise it is old or new ip this studio is one of the best going
Now please move on from The Last of Us and circle back to Jak and Daxter.
Well for me the story is told. Now bring a new IP
Well they always make 3 great games in a franchise.Nothing new here?. lets see their next great franchise?.
Damn it. So this means that the Uncharted game that was being co-developed by Bend and ND before Bend asked to be removed from it wasn't passed to another studio then I guess. This really blows, I'm a big Uncharted fan but don't like TLOU at all.
it was pre-production. Who knows how far they even got with it. Besides, there's rumours that UC has been given to an external team.
As Trump would say, SAD!
Yeah, moved on, bored of your once favourite toy, now it's nothing but TLOU, so It's not surprising that you've moved on to spam something else.
I find it funny how he acts like it wasn't something as big, but really, Drake was more memorable and iconic than Ellie will ever hope to be.
The only problem with this statement is that we know damn well they have already decided whether TLoU 3 is coming. So, dude is acting like he's not sure, when in fact he already knows whether they're gonna do it.
It's more, lets not beat this franchise into the ground, we don't have anything more to explore in this world.
It's better to end it here then beat it to death like you see in other once beloved franchises.
We're already getting a third TLOU game, so it too is approaching the number of games UC has (on console, not including the PSP game).
Last I checked we didn't get an UC tv show either, and TLOU is now a decade old, which is considered old in gaming years, if not older.
4 main entries, 1 spin off, 1 PS Vita game and a movie.
I think they did a lot with the franchise, time to let it go, for them and for you.
I didn't have anything to even let go of, but I feel like a few of you here are being naive if you think spamming another franchise more is within the same as another.
So we're currently sitting at 2 games and 1 tv series with a 3rd multiplayer focused game coming out.
We've had 4 mainline games, psp game, lost legacy, I don'tknow if you forgot, but yes UC doesn't have a show but it had a whole freakin movie lmao.
How is that not a clear difference in why they'd want to move beyond uncharted?
Does current gen even have access anymore to the handheld, spinoff titles?.
Are the spinoffs that more important than the mainline series?
I know that they have moved on, I'm not even remotely trying to argue that, but I feel like you and a few others here are willingly ignoring the signs, or you just don't care to acknowledge them?.
I mean have you seen the film industry the past few decades?.
What signs are being ignored?
It's just pretty simple, they don't want to explore uncharted anymore and beat it into the ground.
Are you trying to argue they've done the same or more for TLOU? I don't get your point.
No, it's simple, but you aren't seeing the repetitive cycle, and think this time is different.
It's not about wanting to move on and "try something new", it's about finding something to spam into the ground until people get bored or sales decline, you know, what Hollywood does, what plenty of AAA studios have been doing the past 2 decades if not longer, Druckman isn't any different in this case.
"Are you trying to argue they've done the same or more for TLOU? "
And are you trying to say they won't?. They have a TV series, last I checked UC doesn't have one, so where else do you think they will go from there?, do you think they will suddenly just stop after 3 and the tv show?.
So we agree? lmao.
My point: They've sucked everything meaningful out of uncharted and have no more to do so they're focusing on other things IE last of us.
Your point: They've sucked everything meaningful out of uncharted and have no more to do so they're focusing on other things IE last of us where they intend to do the same and then move onto something else.
Uncharted 4 was the best selling game in the series, Uncharted 5 would make a lot of money but there's no point in doing any more. That's the point, thats it.
My comment is that studios often continue past that point like guitar hero, halo etc.
I don't disagree with that. at all.
This entire time I thought you were saying they've sucked everything out of the last of us which I found a confusing take.
I just find it hypocritical that he acts like it's fine to spam one thing, but acts like he isn't going to clearly spam the other, and TLOU at this point is a decade old now, which in gaming years makes for an old IP at this point.
The fact he hasn't moved on from the IP in 10yrs tells me he wants to wring as much juice out of that lemon as possible, rather than simply moving onto another project instead.
He passes himself off as some suave visionary, but to me he just looks like any other Hollywood exec, always wanting to squeeze the last drops of juice.
I also think of this for Halo btw, that IP has gone on long enough and it's obvious that 343 couldn't handle it's lore and mechanics well enough, that they are now going to resort to overseas dev teams, in order to hard press it's last few drops of worth out of it.
I just wish he'd own up and say "yes I want to squeeze TLOU for another decade more of juice", because I know that's what he wants, because he's still going at this 10 yrs later...
"The fact he hasn't moved on from the IP in 10yrs tells me he wants to wring as much juice out of that lemon as possible"
10 years means different things in different eras.
There were times where 10 years means 10 games or 5 games.
But we're currently talking about 2 games, so I don't think not wanting to move on after 2 games in a successful franchise is as bad as you make it sound.
Given the sheer number of franchises out there that have more than 2 installments.
we're moving onto a third with a tv show that's getting a second season. I really don't think it's going to magically stop at the third game and 2nd season, this is something that screams a whole other big franchise, spinoffs and all.
I think we'll get 2 more games. I think we'll get a direct sequel to part 2 where Ellie searches for Dina. And potentially a pre part 1 movie that focuses on Joel and what happened the outbreak and meeting Ellie.
They moved on, as they should, the game was made and now they have to do something new.
