Naughty Dog, the development studio behind hugely successful PlayStation console exclusives like Uncharted and The Last of Us, has revealed that it’s currently hard at work on “multiple game projects”.
This news comes from the studio’s co-president Neil Druckmann, who made an appearance in Sony’s CES 2022 press conference. During the presentation, Druckmann touches on the studio’s excitement about the upcoming Uncharted movie as well as HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us for TV. Druckmann closes out his segment by saying that the team at Naughty Dog is “dying to share” the “multiple game projects” they have in the works.
This isn’t the first time Druckmann has teased that there’s plenty going on at Naughty Dog following the release of The Last of Us 2. Back in March 2021, Druckmann tweeted to say that while he wasn’t able to talk about future projects, the studio had “several cool things” to share, adding that as soon as they could share them, they would.
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Whether or not all of these projects are full steam ahead all at the same time is another matter. Naughty Dog co-president, Evan Wells, has previously said in a 2021 episode of the Game Maker’s Notebook podcast (via VGC) that while the studio “definitely” has multiple projects, there’s “only one that is getting the lion’s share of focus at any time.”
“We don’t have two projects that have several hundred people on them,” he explained. “We have one [project] and then some that are in pre-production, or maybe just creeping out of pre-production, but will have to wait until the main focus has completed before we move everybody off of that project.”
Analysis: What could Naughty Dog be working on?
So, what could Naughty Dog be working on? Well, there have been plenty of reports around that over the last year.
One thing we do know that’s happening is a standalone multiplayer for The Last of Us. Naughty Dog revealed it would sit separately to The Last of Us 2 back in 2019, explaining that “the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode.” In September 2021, the studio confirmed that the project was still in development and that it was in “full swing of hiring for MP-related positions.” As yet, the multiplayer doesn’t have a release date.
As for what else could be in the works, there are plenty of rumors and no official confirmations. In April 2021, for instance, a report emerged that Naughty Dog could be working on a PS5 remake of the original The Last of Us that would have a “similar look and feel” to The Last of Us 2.
Then there’s Neil Druckmann’s revelation in April 2021 that he and co-writer Halley Gross have written an outline for The Last of Us 3, though he did at that they weren’t making it but simply hoped it would “one day it will see the light of day”.
Regardless of specifics, it sounds like Naughty Dog is hard at work and we’re hoping we’ll find out more about its multiple projects as we get further into 2022.
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