Last week, Sony published an interview with The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann as part of the company’s corporate strategy meeting. In the interview, Druckmann was quoted as saying their next game could “redefine mainstream perception of gaming”.
On Friday, May 24, 2024, Druckmann took to X to clear the air. According to the Naughty Dog designer, the comment attributed to him was heavily edited and might have been twisted out of context. He went further to share his unedited interview which was far different from what Sony published.
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“In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with SONY, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost,” Druckmann said. “Well, here’s the full long rambling answer for the final question about our future game…”
While it is not uncommon for corporate communications teams to edit quotes from interviews for clarity and brevity, it is unusual for contexts to be lost in the process. Druckmann publishing his original unedited words can easily be interpreted as his dissatisfaction and protest against Sony’s comms team.
In his response, Druckmann said that he doesn’t believe “games need to be movies, or they need to be TV shows,” but said that the success of The Last of Us movie adaptation and Fallout has the potential to make people realize, “Oh my God, there’s all these incredible moving experiences in games!”
https://x.com/Neil_Druckmann/status/1794187395279253837
Druckmann has always been elusive when asked about Naughty Dog’s next project. Last year, he suggested that the studio will take a slightly different approach by revealing their next project closer to launch to avoid the “work-life balance issues” their developers face when games are revealed too early.
Although he had previously acknowledged that gamers are asking for The Last of Us Part 3, he also said that the studio was willing to try something new, adding that Sony’s philosophy allows them to do so.
