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The third chapter of The Last of Us may see the light of day in the coming years. Naughty Dog refuses to make the news official but admits to working on it.
With the release of the remaster of The Last of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog promised to air a lengthy documentary on the game’s development. This was posted online yesterday evening and looks back at the difficulties involved in creating such a structure. Sequel We find many moments of suspense, but above all, the eternal race against time. The Last of Us Part 2 was an ambitious project that faced many delays. And this, despite a lot crunchThis is the moment when employees no longer count their overtime hours.
The end of this documentary feels like a kind of me-kalpa. Some of Naughty Dog’s top brass say all this should be history; We should favor a better balance of life and this needs to be eradicated crunch and a mix between face-to-face and teleworking. But what interests us is elsewhere. At the very end, in an interview recorded in spring 2023, Neil Druckmann discusses the future of The Last of Us.
The Last of Us 3 teased by Neil Druckman
Neil Druckmann is the creative director of the first two The Last of Us and the sole president of Naughty Dog since 2024. He claims to have written a story after part 2. It revolves around Joel’s brother Tommy, but this story is too short for The Last of Us Part 3; Maybe it will just be an episode for the TV series.
On the other hand, he reveals that he has a concept for a future video game. ” The concept of the first game was simple: the unconditional love of a parent for their child. In the second, we focus on the pursuit of justice at all costs for those we love. It was another simple concept that echoed the idea of love in the first game. If we stop there, it’s a very good ending. All said, the story is over. (…) I wondered if there was another concept to exploit. For years I got nothing. But recently (Editor’s Note: In Spring 2023), that changed. I don’t have a story but I do have a concept that I think is as interesting as 1 or 2. It is independent but all three are interconnected. So there may be another chapter.”
At the end of this announcement, the end credits appear. In other words, a sequel has clearly been teased: The Last of Us Part 3 is in the works. But what does Naughty Dog do now?
Will The Last of Us Part 3 be released on PS5 or PS6?
The Californian studio released two games on PS5: The Last of Us Part 1 remake and Part 2 remaster. Not one of them was actually directed by Neil Druckman. The latter is working on the studio’s future major single-player game, the title of which has yet to be announced. Is it The Last of Us 3 or a completely different project?
This question is difficult to answer. Of course, part 2 was released in June 2020 – 3 and a half years ago – but in the meantime, Naughty Dog took time to review its way of working, and Neil Druckman worked on the HBO series. Despite everything, the logic would be that the new license is the studio’s current flagship project. And only after its release, development of The Last of Us Part 3 can begin.
If these assumptions are true, it’s hard to imagine this third episode on PS5. Development times are incredibly long these days. Such a project would probably take 4 to 6 years. And that sends us to 2030, like Physint, Hideo Kojima’s futuristic next-gen game. Incidentally, the PS6 schedule is starting to get pretty exciting…
