A recent Uncharted The Nathan Drake Collection livestream may have inadvertently given away Naughty Dog's involvement in developing The Last of Us 2. It was Uncharted series writer Josh Scherr who had a slip of the tongue, talking up his co-worker Eric Baldwin's facial animation work on "all of the Uncharted games and the first The Last of Us."
Baldwin immediately recognized his error and attempted to backpedal, but he couldn't seem to come up with anything else to say. "Uh, did I say 'the first The Last of Us'? The first The Last of Us. Uh, The Last of Us! The first Last of Us." You can see the stumble in the "Uncharted Moments" stream by skipping to 21:13.
We've also pulled the relevant bit out as the archive won't be up for ever:
Now, before we get our hopes up too much, it's possible that Scherr just flat-out goofed and said "the first" when referring to a single-installment series. This was, after all, part of a stream event for The Nathan Drake Collection, a single disc containing three games - the brain can get confused in a scenario like that. It's also possible that a second Last of Us game could refer to the Left Behind DLC, depending on how you classify that extra content.
(Ed's note: Leon here. One interesting thing I've just noticed is that when Baldwin mentions 'the first' The Last of Us he's talking about the keyframe, hand animation that Naughty Dog used for every game up to Uncharted 4, which would include The Last Of Us and Left Behind. Uncharted 4 is the first game the studio's done with facial capture, suggesting that system could be used on an alleged The Last Of Us 2. If it exists... Normal service resumes.)
But let's end on a happy note and make this something of a hope sandwich. This isn't the first time a Last of Us sequel has been quasi-revealed. Remember that just a few months ago, Nathan Drake (and now Ghost from Destiny) voice actor Nolan North told a Metrocon audience, "I know they're doing The Last of Us 2."
And the rumor mill continues to churn.
Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!
