A new job listing at PlayStation exclusive developer Naughty Dog may suggest that The Last of Us 2 – or a future Naughty Dog title – could make the leap to PC, thanks to references to PC-specific skills it asks for.
The role is for a graphics programmer on Naughty Dog's game team, who would "implement new and existing rendering techniques for our upcoming game, The Last of Us Part 2". But down in the requirement and skills section of the job posting, it asks for:
- Thorough understanding of current GPU architectures (AMD GCN, NVIDIA CUDA)
- Experience with DirectX12, Vulkan, or other modern graphics or compute APIs
- Console or PC Programming experience
Now, Naughty Dog may well just be looking for someone with a broad range of programming experience, but it's interesting that the requirements actually include specifics that don't relate at all to PS4 architecture – or the PS5 for that matter.
Both the PS4 and the upcoming PS5 will use AMD graphics tech, rather than Nvidia, and DirectX12 enables developers to add amazing graphics effects to Microsoft Windows-based PC games, rather than anything to do with console gaming.
It's unlikely that The Last of Us 2 could come to PC anytime soon, but with rumours suggesting that Horizon Zero Dawn is also coming to PC sometime this year, it could be that Sony is loosening its grip on some PS4 exclusives. Could we see both next-gen consoles share their exclusives games with PC gaming audiences?
For now, why not get excited about all the best new games of 2020 confirmed so far?