The Last of Us’ creator, Neil Druckmann, has spoken to BuzzFeed in an enormous interview on the recent HBO television adaptation of the game as well as the future of the franchise – including some insight into the upcoming multiplayer game.
The whole thing is well worth a read, and goes into a lot of detail about some of the creative choices that went into the TV show, but when quizzed about the video game side of things and the potential for The Last of Us Part 3, Druckmann was adamant that the multiplayer title is the next big The Last of Us game and even offered a tiny morsel of clarity around what we can expect from it.
It sounds as though this next title will be less Factions and more a somewhat story-driven co-operative experience, one with new characters in a new city. Interesting, Druckmann’s words seem to indicate that this might even be a strictly two-player game, which would very much be in line with what we’ve seen from the concept art revealed so far.
“We’ve been pretty open that the next Last of Us game is going to be this multiplayer experience, where you’ll be able to enter the world of The Last of Us with your friend and get to experience the tension and the brutality of that world — and a brand new story and cast of characters that live in another city that we haven’t seen yet in the world of The Last of Us. This is going to be another chapter in the universe of The Last of Us.”
Druckmann also explained that, despite plenty of requests, The Last of Us Part 3 will only happen if the team feels a compelling story can be told. And if not, it’s more than willing to step away from the series in much the same way as Uncharted.
“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. 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.”
