Last of Us director Neil Druckmann says he doesn´t think he has many more big games left in him

Naughty Dog's boss says “everything has been incredibly stressful” since Uncharted 2's release

[OtterX]

I can actually respect that. My kids are also number 1 in my life, and I've backed off of many things that hindered that before too. Even w gaming, my gaming habits have evolved to include more actual gaming time shared with them.

[Simon_the_sorcerer]

A winner is you!

[Cacabunga]

Good neil then gtfo..

[The_Hooligan]

I can relate to that. I got a 3 year old and he's still young to give me company while playing games so I usually just play on Friday, Saturday nights when he and the wifey are asleep. And that's if we are not out somewhere so the overall game time has definitely reduced for me. But no complaints from me, watching the little grow is the best thing. But I will say this, getting a PlayStation portal couple of weeks ago has definitely been a blessing. While my better half watches her shows I can keep her company and do my thing.

[OtterX]

Yea, I really want a Portal! I have a 7 year old, a 4 year old, but we also just had a new baby at the end of December... right now, I'm all over my Switch bc I can't be confined to the living room tv. I had to prioritize getting stuff for the baby rather than buying a Portal this year (or a Steam Deck!) But handhelds are certainly godsends for parents of little ones for sure! Parenthood is amazing, isn't it? Especially when we start to share that gaming passion w them. My 7 year old is really appreciating retro NES, SNES gaming too, even PS1 & N64, as it brings a smile to her face playing what Daddy was playing as a kid. :)

[Demetrius]

I turn 31 this year, single no kids so I game but still have to cut back myself I like to stay consistent in the gym, maintain bettering myself etc, most times I game atleast an hour and a half but I always will enjoy gaming it's a mf vibe fasho

[DarXyde]

It's a tricky balance, but you learn to economize (not without sacrifice, of course). Though I am married with children, I also have way too many hobbies/interests to be effective. Like you, I'm also a gym rat. With the exception of vacations, I've missed maybe 1-2 months worth of days in the last 14 years (though some hotels during vacations do have gyms). That consistency matters a lot to me, and the family is also pretty active so it's a family event (in your case, not a bad way to meet someone either, mate).

Also love to play guitar and the family loves to listen. Reading is something I have 30 minutes for before bed.

These are my three main hobbies which is why it takes me forever to beat any single game. I should be stoned for my backlog.

But it's about what matters the most to you and how you choose to manage it. Once you have your other half, you don't have to give up the things you love. You just integrate them as best you can.

I doubt you'll have to cut back necessarily. In one sitting, maybe. But at the end of the day, you'll still finish your games. Takes longer, but that's hardly a bad thing. 🙂

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Multiple hobbies really are hard to juggle, I started going to the gym last year, between that, gaming, model kits, reading, ect... I don't really have enough time for everything I want to do. I actually need to drop some hobbies or interests.

[Lightning77]

He's been around in Hollywood in the past 4 years. Not only does he want something low key while still being creative he clearly wants to work in Hollywood. Mostly likely full time when it's all said and done.

At this point are we even gonna see what he's workin on this year?

[yeahokwhatever]

hollywood is definitely more this guys "style"

[Lightning77]

That's fine if it is. Meanwhile he's a freakin Job to do at ND. My God his boss just said they're missing release date targets and delays. This clown is part of that damn problem. Why Sony is letting this guy run around Hollywood when he has a damn job to do is beyond me. All we get from him is, Oh we thought about this concept, this direction. This and that, just talking and more talking. Listen, he can do whatever he pleases he can get lost in the shuffle of Hollywood and be forgotten about and chase Kojimas coattails but right now, he needs to be at his job FULL TIME.

If we don't see his game rather that's concept trailer, working title something at Sony's showcase this year it'll be 100% his fault.

[LoveSpuds]

Lightening, if you cannot appreciate the HUGE impact Druckman has made in respect of tje profile of Sony and PlayStation given the monumental success of the Last of Us TV show, then I dunno what to tell you.

It's been 3 years or so since Last of Us 2, perhaps you should come up with your own ideas about ND not putting games out quickly enough instead of parroting dubious narratives from 3rd rate websites.

I would be amazed if games of the quality of ND output were releasing every 2 years or so.

I want them to put games out desperately, but given how relatively recent TLoU2 was, I am not worried in yhe slightest about their output.

MS put barely anything of quality out for 15 years at this point, go look there if you want to focus on poor output.

[senorfartcushion]

I'd say it was more LA than Hollywood.

[Lightning77]

@Spuds. You sound offended. Has he not been distracted with Hollywood the past 4 years or so?

You rather have him go back and forth 50 50 between his job and Hollywood? Games already take 5+ years which means He needs to be fully committed to his craft does he not? What's the issue?

Why would I talk about MS As their games? Why would I go back 15 years or bring them up? That makes no sense.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

It really does feel like he'd rather be making TV or movies rather than games, although Hollywood might be hard to break into (I heard he's had some trouble already).

[senorfartcushion]

It's like when IGN employees move into marketing. No one is in games journalism to BE journalists. They want to climb their own ladder.

[yeahokwhatever]

thank God.

[LordStig]

Good! The sooner mister fun is a forbidden word is gone the better. Fart sniffer hasn't done anything this generation except put ND back in the position they were during the ps2 to ps3 transitional period.

[-Foxtrot]

I like what that ex Uncharted writer for the film Joe Carnahan said years ago

He’s a hitchhiker

[Patrick2]

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, he's the Kathleen Kennedy of Naughty Dog. He road the coattails of better men and women, and then when they left and he took over, the company starts to decline. They should toss him out and hire a talented person who wants to ENTERTAIN gamers with ENTERTAINING GAMES.

[-Foxtrot]

Please just run off to Hollywood where you clearly want to be

Like I’ve said it’s insane to me this guy is the sole person leading ND now and he’s off dicking around with the HBO series along with awards shows and the like rather than being with his studio…you know the studio that’s had some bumps in the roads lately.

You need someone who’s constantly at the studio working close the team

[neomahi]

For once, I think you and I are in agreement

[Profchaos]

It's be nice if he backed off and gave others a chance to direct as he kind of pushed out Amy Henning for the same role in ND and has only really prioritised tlou and it's getting old to be honest I really want to not see a tlou3 at least not in the next few years ND doing something else with new leadership could renew my interest because it's currently about as low as it was when all we were getting was Jak and Daxter games constantly on the ps2

[neomahi]

That's why gamers liked Naughty Dog was just that. When PS1 died, they were done making Crash Bandicoot. When PS2 died they were done making Jak & Daxter. They should've done the same with Uncharted and The Last of Us. New hardware, new IP, but they quit doing that and what happened?

[Sonic1881]

Because he never did it by himself. This guy is so overrated

[Crows90]

Um.....he only got 1 game out. Arguably kinda 2. That's it. He's just not that talented. Get out of naughty dog fast dude. Then it'll be great again

[neomahi]

He did Uncharted 4 with Bruce Straley, but look what happens when he runs the show, when he has someone whose making better decisions, look what happens. Straley helped him through Uncharted and the first Last of Us, Straley is more level-headed and isn't woke. But Druckmanns right hand man right now is Anthony Newman whose just as bad

[CrimsonWing69]

I think the industry will be just fine.

[Asterphoenix]

I admit it's hard working in development and running a studio. But I admit one thing is that I don't agree on your vision Neil. I've had my fix of Uncharted and Last of Us. That rumored space game sounds lot more interesting. Naughty Dog was lot better in its older days.

[Rebel_Scum]

Geez a lot of ingrates in here.

[Profchaos]

He may of made tlou but he also backstabbed and pushed out other talent to get the top position I think ND would be in a better position without him and especially without his misguided tlou2 multiplayer

[neomahi]

I forgot about that, until now. I thought that's part of what happened to Hennig, who Druckmann led everyone to believe she was the greatest mentor he had, but once she obviously served her purpose, he got rid of her. Again, look at him trying to move along without Straley, he can't. Not as good as he thought. Druckmann and Newman are poison at Naughty Dog. I thought Druckmann was gonna bring Newman in as the co-President, and I still fear that's where Newman is still headed but, Druckmanns ego is too big to let someone hog up all his glory, but yeah, Anthony Newman is just as woke and just as bad

[mastershredder]

No Shi7.

Someone gets it.

[FPS_D3TH]

Just needs to finish putting naughty dog into the ground first or what? This guy will sell everyone out to get what he wants.

[neomahi]

Yup

[neomahi]

This dude's a horrible Studio President. His ego got the better of him and Naughty Dog has nothing as a result. He focused too much on him and his own personal woke, liberal, political agenda. Gamers don't wanna go to church to be preached to, its why organized religion numbers are suffering, but wouldn't you know it, games do just that and gamers are ignorant to it.

Druckmann has focused only on what makes his name big, The Last of Us was a game that during the PS3 era was about bringing the film experience to games, not the other way around, that was Uncharted 's reputation. They had other ideas going around like a Mass Effect type game they said and what happened to that? They focused on the political woke garbage. I think that's why Bruce Straley left and look at Druckmann without Straley. Straley didn't want to get caught up in all of that and left like a professional with class. What has Naughty Dog since? Remakes and remasters. Naughty Dog hasn't done anything. Under Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra Naughty Dog flourished, maybe Balestra already saw the woke influence creeping in and he couldn't do anything about it. Balestra was a family man and he saw what was coming. This doesn't surprise me. Druckmann thought he was all that and did it all himself because "he was the genius" well, guess not

[Demetrius]

Mans ain't tryna get no ps5 games out lol smh ps6 only 2 years away from reveal and still no new game from em

[chicken_in_the_corn]

What makes you think ps6 is two years away?

[Charlieboy333]

Well would you at least try and squeeze one out for us this gen at least. I know you're more focused on your tv stuff. Thanks.

[Kaze88]

Amy Hennig was the carrying force of making stories in the studio. When she left, he did what...last of us 2 by himself which people hated due to story issues. I think he never had a proper game story in him to begin with.

[anast]

Some people hated. The game sold incredibly well even after the "anti-woke" superheroes got upset.

[terstomp]

The game sold well apart from his personnel woke agenda which I disagreed with, but I still bought and enjoyed it. Why? The actual gameplay was superb and it had a layer of polish and quality. It was accessible to a wide range of gaming abilities. And no time wasting open world, mtx, dumb side quests, no spending half the game deep inside menus. Few AAA games have this.

[anast]

I left a comment saying that they did more than fine after Henning and why people hated the story. I don't get the confusion here.

[FunAndGun]

Some people hated, others loved. Stop projecting your feelings as facts.

[neomahi]

Totally agree

[VariantAEC]

100% agree!
What has Druckmann done on his own? Basically nothing, he wasn't lead until TLoU P2 which while selling monumentally well the first time around wasn't actually all that good. Gameplay wise it was TLoU which is great, but that's the only good thing even the people under this article have said about it it was polished and had great gameplay. The problem is that ths gane was let down by an annoying lead which was too dumb to do anything about her own psychological issues which were basically self-imposed. The 'totally not a zombie shooter' also became a zombie shooter because Druckmann is that uninspired. We know tge life cycle of the infected... Druckmann tossed that out the window to.spice yhe gameplay up which was actually the wrong move for the wider meta or lore of The Last of Us as an IP, which was supposed to be 'grounded,' as Druckmann himself claimed... Druckmann couldn't even keep his own universe's story straight. He shouldn't have ever gotten to the position he did within ND.

Funny that the quote is that everything got stressful after U2... that was all on him. He was the thorn in ND's paw.

[mudakoshaka]

You sure? He can make The Last of Us enhanced remaster, then Last of Us 2 the remastered enhanced version, then release a collection The Last of Us 1 & 2 Ultimate Remastered Enhanced Collection. Then, in 10 years he can make a remake of the TV show. The Last of Us starring a proper Joel and Ellie (where she isn’t the smartest person in the world before the age of 14).

This guy made an OK game that has stolen the premise from other productions and added a hint of rainbow and all of a sudden it is praised as if it was the next Mona Lisa. Gimme a break. To quote Cartman/Kathleen Kennedy: ”Put a chick in it and make her gay”.

[anast]

You must really hate Nintendo and Bethesda.

[mudakoshaka]

Haha, sold my Switch 4 years ago. I did not get it to play a big Nintendo game every 3 years. That thing was a joke. Saw it a mile coming when Nintendo let almost any 3rd party developer release their game for Switch. Nintendo’s standards were much higher once but they needed to fill the void left by them when they decided not to make as big and as many titles as they once did.

As for Bethesda, I really like Fallout! Skyrim, even if it is my type of game, I never played it. And now it just seems outdated. Had high hopes for Starfield but that impressed me as much as Playstations upcoming line-up…not at all!

[anast]

Then your comment makes a sense. I gave you an upvote.

[mudakoshaka]

Thank you, sir/madame! There should be more people like you on the internet. You get an upvote too!

[mudakoshaka]

I guess whoever downvoted me thanking you must not believe in sirs or madames. They probably believe that we all just have a hole down there without any indication of our genders. That is the same hole they got in their head when they think that calling a poodle a rottweiler will really make that poodle into a rottweiler.

[derek]

Interesting interview, the interviewer was annoying in his constant interruption about himself.

[anast]

This comment section reminds me of a gaggle of bitter old ladies and stuffy gentlemen with top hats.

[dveio]

I don't know.

It's maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think many people are way too over-demanding.

ND since the very first Uncharted produced nothing but GOTY games. Every time at or as the top in everything games can offer audiovisually.

When we had them, we played them and everything was fine. But as soon as we finished them we sought for their next announcement quickly.

We shouldn't do that anymore. Give them time. Yes, even if it means "still" no PS5 title from them.

Even I really get the sense of exhaustion they must be suffering from. I mean ... even creatively speaking. How can you possibly pump out games at their scale every four to five years? I couldn't even write a poem every day.

Wether it's in films, music or games - creativity, even besides the massive part of hardware programming, doesn't come easy.

To me it feels like ND have just burned-out, while also having sacrificed many things in their personal lives. And of course they get older, too. With everything that comes with it.

Before Insomniac, it was them who supported Playstation hardware at an insane level of quality and output for more than a decade.

We shouldn't forget making outstanding games is not like making burgers. Let's leave those burger games to EA, Ubisoft and others.

I would want Druckmann to stay.

It's not only him who made TloU2, I know. But rest assured he was responsible for holding every string together and polishing it the best way possible. Just look at it - TloU2 is a powerhouse and an audiovisual masterpiece to this day.

[MatrixxGT]

This dude is a jerk and all about himself. He sure has Sony fooled. If people would actually look into him and how he treats people instead of looking through the TLoU binders I don’t see how anyone can support this guy.

[senorfartcushion]

Stop making big games then. Make smaller games that are either linear and powerfully-written, or small open worlds that provide some freedom and fun.

[H9]

Finally some good news

[thejigisup]

Food for him moving on soon. We aren't meant to work ourselves into an early grave. That being said ND needs new leadership focused on gaming at some point. To be honest, watching a lot of druck's interviews over the last few years it seems like he has lost his passion for creating good, fun and engaging games.

[PaleMoonDeath]

Good, dudes not healthy for gaming media anymore. Did TLOU1 great, UC4 was.. alright, but TLOU2 was trash. Don't like his messaging in games etc.

[gunnerforlife]

He hasn't really done anything though has he? Never actually led a game until tlou2.. And even then majority of everything that was in the game story wise, was based of off trashed storyboard for tlou1, he just can't handle the stress and backlash he has received for screwing up tlou2.

[ANIALATOR136]

Good

[TheLigX]

I guess he just wants to spend more time spinning genocidal Zionist narratives on a smaller scale. I’ve never seen a game creator so hated from all side of the video game political discourse. I won’t miss him.

[GoodnessGreatness]

GOOD. He has to leave Naughty Dog, we're done with all that woke shit..

[Silver_ShadoWolf]

Buddy. You only had a maybe one or two games in you to begin with. The last few years has been remake after remake. Your time was up a while ago, yet you held onto your spot, not giving those who could do better a shot.

[VariantAEC]

He had basically 1 if we take Straleys word for it that TLoU (2012) was basically the brainchild of Druckmann. In saying that Druckmann messed up TLoU (2012) with the Left Behind DLC anyway. So he barely had one full games story in him.
He always wanted to inject his ideology and personal politics into the stories knkwing full well that the majority of people don't agree with it.

[Aaroncls7]

thank god

[AdonisIsBeast]

Great riddance