The games industry can be ruthless. Even when you have massive hits under your belt, there are no guarantees. Bruce Straley, a longtime Naughty Dog developer who co-directed several of the studio's biggest releases, found that out the hard way when his new studio apparently lost funding midway through a project.

The timeline was recounted by Quentin Cobb, a designer who worked at Naughty Dog on The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, in an interview with Kiwi Talkz. "He was funded by Microsoft," Cobb recalls. "On July 2 [2025], the same day I got laid off, his funding got pulled for his game."

Microsoft conducted a huge round of layoffs in early July 2025, cutting around 9,000 jobs, many of which were within various parts of Xbox. It seems some in-development pieces of work were part of this cost-cutting measure, including Straley's new puzzler, Coven of the Chicken Foot, which is being made by his new team, Wildflower Interactive.

Luckily, he managed to turn things around, by getting a trailer out as part of The Game Awards that attracted other funding sources. "There were several months where they thought they were done," Cobb says. "It was game over, because of July 2."

Sharing co-director credits with Neil Druckmann on Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4, and The Last of Us and its Left Behind DLC, Straley brings huge pedigree to the table. Anything new under his tutelage is worth a gander, or so you'd imagine. But that's the landscape of the triple-A space right now, and of Xbox Game Studios.

Microsoft's games department has been going through it for some time now, and current CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty have said more turbulence is coming in what they've called an "Xbox reset." Meanwhile, Coven of the Chicken Foot is still without a release window, but development seems to be moving along fine now. We can only hope that much continues.

Final Fantasy Resonance lead says games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are leading a turn-based resurgence because "creators who grew up playing JRPGs" are now making them themselves.

I wasn't sure whether we'd see many upcoming PS5 games at Summer Game Fest 2026, but now that Sony has finally unveiled its plans for June's State of Play showcase, I'm finally feeling more optimistic about what will actually be taking the stage.

If Summer Game Fest 2026's schedule encompasses the main events, State of Play is more of a pregame. This is where I'm expecting to see the console exclusive titles having a bit of a preen, from the confirmed presence of the new Wolverine game (more on that below) to more recent new game announcements that haven't had much more than an initial teaser.

I've also thrown in a handful of cross-platform heavy-hitters for good measure, since the current list of PS5 exclusive offerings is growing a little thin these days. But I think you'll agree that all of these games are pretty likely contenders when it comes to the PS5 games to watch for at SGF this year, so keep scrolling and theorize with me.

1. Marvel's Wolverine

Developer: Insomniac Games
Platform(s): PS5
Release date: September 15, 2026

This is less of a prediction, more of a certainty. With June 2026's Sony State of Play already locked in, Marvel's Wolverine will be kicking off the pre-SGF festivities in adamantine-clawed style. We can expect a deep-dive into the upcoming Marvel game during the showcase, which will hopefully add a little color to the picture given how little we've seen of Logan despite the game already having a release date.

2. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Developer: Naughty Dog
Platform(s): PS5
Release date: TBC

It's not been too long since our first glimpse of the latest Naughty Dog game, but as one of the few new PS5 exclusives on my radar, I'm hoping to see Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet in June's State of Play showcase. I added this one to our Wildcard Wishlist because at the time of writing, it did feel like a longshot. But now that Sony has confirmed it will be showing off at least something this June, this pipedream inches closer to reality. All we have to go on at the moment is a gorgeous if brief cinematic trailer and some snippets of melee combat in-action, so perhaps it's time we get a closer look at the story and sci-fi world Naughty Dog has been cooking for us?

3. Phantom Blade Zero

Developer: S-Game
Platform(s): PC, PS5
Release date: September 9, 2026

Phantom Blade Zero couldn't come at a better time. Wuxia ARPGs are all the rage right now, and we're finally only months away from developer S-Game's stunning new hack-n-slasher. I feel like we've been previewing this one on GamesRadar+ for years now – my action-RPG megafan colleague has been raving about it – and it's still one of the most exciting new games coming to PS5 three years post-reveal. I'm a little sad I might not get to check it out yet on my Xbox, given its timed platform exclusivity on PS5, but that fact alone has me pretty confident that we'll be seeing more of Phantom Blade Zero during Sony State of Play on June 2, if not during SGF weekend itself!

4. Untitled John Wick game

Developer: Saber Interactive
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Release date: TBC

By far one of the coolest games at the last State of Play, I'm dying to see more of the new John Wick game in development at Saber Interactive. With Keanu Reeves back in action as the eponymous action hero, the trailer shown at Sony's last showcase gave us a taste of the chaos we can expect, from pens in eye-sockets to throwing henchmen around like ragdolls, and I have a feeling John Wick might show up again in time for SGF 2026. This might not be a Sony-published initiative, but third-party games are almost always featured among the best PS5 games in these State of Play broadcasts.

Summer Game Fest 2026 draws ever closer, and this might be GamesRadar+'s longest Wildcard Wishlist yet. The Summer Game Fest 2026 schedule grows more detailed by the week, with an Xbox Games Showcase and Gears of War special confirmed so far alongside Day of the Devs and a Wholesome Direct. But instead of being rational when it comes to specific game predictions, I've enlisted my most trusted dreamer colleagues in outlining all the new games we hope to see – no matter how out-of-pocket they might be. (I mean, I was right about Resident Evil Requiem's reveal last summer, after all.)

This is our third year of putting our hearts before our heads in the leadup to the showcase season. Here, you'll find everything from announced upcoming PS5 and upcoming Xbox Series X games we'd love to see more of, like The Witcher 4 and GTA 6, to upcoming Ubisoft games that have yet to be revealed despite reportedly entering development. They're all alike in one way: we have no real reason to be hoping for a major update from them at Summer Game Fest this year… but man, would we love to see it. Get the hopium ready, people. Here are the GamesRadar+ team's most-wanted wildcard games of SGF 2026!

1. Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

The leaks are out there now, which means I'm just waiting for some official Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe news to validate it. It's been a busy time for Ubisoft, with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched launching mere months from now, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for a rich, gloomy setting, and a game set during the European witch trials would definitely tick that box. After all these years jumping between RPGs and stealth action, it's high time Ubisoft injects some much-needed provincial magic into the mix. I saw Ezio Auditore with the devil!

2. Divinity

Developer: Larian Studios
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

We only just learned of Larian's new RPG at The Game Awards 2025, so maybe I'm greedy to hope for another peek so soon at Summer Game Fest. But can you blame me? The stunning reveal trailer introduces a far grislier side to the Baldur's Gate 3 studio than we've ever seen before, with a man getting burned alive inside a wicker effigy while townspeople celebrate around the pyre with rapturous glee. All eyes are on Larian as it quietly works to bring this sinister medieval fantasy to life, and while I'm more than happy to wait patiently, I really hope the studio doesn't leave too long before our next glimpse.

3. Haunted Chocolatier

Developer: ConcernedApe
Platform(s): PC
Release date: TBC

I know, I know, ConcernedApe (aka Eric Barone) has told us time and time again that he's still wrapped up in Stardew Valley and won't be showing off his upcoming RPG anytime soon. But it would be remiss of me not to include the elusive Haunted Chocolatier on this list, even as someone with admittedly little knowledge of his other works. The combination of its quirky setting, social sim elements, and a greater focus on combat this time around in this "way bigger" game is what grips me about it, and the fact that it's still so shrouded in mystery only piques my interest further. C'mon, Mr Barone - break off a square for us at Summer Game Fest?

4. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

Developer: Naughty Dog
Platform(s): PS5
Release date: TBC

It's been two years since Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was revealed at The Game Awards 2024, and Naughty Dog has been quiet for far too long. The Last of Us developer's latest looks like a stunning sci-fi adventure, with a brief cinematic reveal trailer the only thing we have to go on for now. It's the studio's "wildest, most creative story yet" according to Neil Druckman, but I'm most keen for a better look at its combat after a glimpse of its third-person melee action. Here's hoping SGF 2026 sees Naughty Dog reminding us of its upcoming PS5 exclusive in style – maybe even with a release window?

5. Marvel's Blade

Developer: Arkane Lyon
Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series X
Release date: TBC

The coolest vamp slayer in the Marvel universe is past due a temperature check, but with such little news of late, I'm not feeling confident we'll be seeing Marvel's Blade at Summer Game Fest 2026. Studio Arkane's upcoming Marvel game has been in the works for years now, and save for some stills shared in 2025, we really haven't learned much since its first reveal in 2023. But maybe that silence is soon to end, should Arkane appear during an Xbox showcase this summer to give the PS5's upcoming Marvel's Wolverine a run for its money? Again, I have no grounds for this supposition except… what if?

6. Mass Effect 5

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

After Dragon Age: The Veilguard tied a bow on Dragon Age for what will likely be a long time to come, I have my sights firmly set on my other favorite BioWare series: Mass Effect. With Mass Effect 5 in the works, there's always a small part of me that hopes we'll learn more about the next space-faring adventure. With only crumbs to go off of so far – which amounts to cryptic teasers here and there – there are so many questions I have about what's in store. As the developer is busy working on the next entry, I don't expect we'll actually see it at Summer Game Fest this year… But hey, there's always N7 Day in November.

7. Cyberpunk 2

Developer: CD Projekt Red
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

What else is this list for but to wish for the day CD Projekt Red unveils Cyberpunk 2 for real? We've known about the existence of the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel for some time now, with some rumors (or leaks, considering they came from the IP creator himself) that it will be set outside of Night City in Chicago instead. This is about as wildcard of a wishlist item I could possibly think of, and there's as much likelihood of it being shown at Summer Game Fest as there is of Keanu Reeves breaking into my house to offer me a cigarette. But both are things I'd quite enjoy, so leave a girl to her dreams.

8. Far Cry 7

Developer: TBA
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

While I'm still high on complete fantasy, we need to talk about Far Cry 7. Ubisoft has been especially quiet about the followup to 2021's Far Cry 6, so much so that it hasn't even been revealed yet. The rumor mill suggests that it could be coming as soon as next year, but as Ubisoft goes through a period of restructuring, there's never been a murkier time to be a fan of its top IPs. Still, if a Ubisoft Forward is on the cards for this summer, maybe it's not so wild to imagine a Far Cry 7 reveal after all? Not sure how I feel about the 24 hour time-limit, though…

9. The Witcher 4

Developer: CD Projekt Red
Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series X, PS5
Release date: TBC

More than a decade after Geralt hung up his swords, The Witcher 4 seems tantalisingly close yet remains just out of reach. Last summer's tech demo suggests CDPR has been quietly making major strides, but since then we've heard almost nothing about Ciri's upcoming adventure beyond a promising series of hiring announcements. Unfortunately, we're not expecting to return to The Continent before 2027, which means a major announcement is unlikely, but a new trailer setting up Ciri's story or her adventure in the new region of Kovir could be the start of a major 18-month hype cycle.

10. The Elder Scrolls 6

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

After a whopping 14 years of… well, not much of anything, I'm still unwaveringly hopeful we'll see The Elder Scrolls 6 make an appearance at another event, even if it hasn't since its very first reveal at E3 back in 2018. Sure, Todd Howard himself has joked that we should all "just pretend" that Bethesda never announced its long-awaited next RPG, but that's far easier said than done. I'd love to see a sneak peek of the setting – whether or not it's truly the ever-rumored Hammerfell or High Rock – or perhaps get an idea of when it's set. Will it take place after or before Skyrim? Will we see playable races we've never seen before, like the Falmer? I doubt it, but hey, a girl can dream – and dreaming is exactly what I'll be doing.

11. Grand Theft Auto 6

Developer: Rockstar Games
Platform(s): PS5, Xbox Series X
Release date: November 19, 2026

With Grand Theft Auto 6 set to launch on November 19 and no further delays in sight, expect to hear a lot more from Rockstar in the coming months. Although the game's two existing trailers have been released with little build-up or fanfare, Summer Game Fest 2026 could be the perfect stage for Rockstar to open the floodgates as the run-up to launch begins. After all, we still don't know much about what we'll be getting up to in Leonida, nor what to expect from GTA 6's multiplayer. Will anything from our GTA 6 wishlist come true at SGF 2026? Time will tell!

12. Persona 6

Developer: Atlus
Platform(s): TBC
Release date: TBC

As Persona 5 fast approaches its tenth anniversary, having complete silence on the next proper game in the RPG series is starting to make me sweat, but Persona 6 news might come soon. The fifth game propelled this teen drama series into the spotlight like never before, and as a (mostly) anthology-style series the big question is just how what will Persona 6 do next? Stick with its predecessors urban, Tokyo vibes? Return to a rural small town, like Persona 4? Will they age up teens to college students? Will it still be set in Japan, or span multiple locations? Will it be green?! It could be anything. Which also means, at the moment, it's nothing. I simply have to know what direction they'll be taking, so even a small teaser will do. But, like everyone else waiting, I demand to be impressed. No pressure now.

13. Wolf Among Us 2

Developer: Telltale / Adhoc Studio
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Release date: TBC

It's somehow been nearly seven years since The Wolf Among Us 2 was first announced at the Game Awards back in 2019. Fast forward to today, and we've seen a few trailers, screenshots, and story details. But after a string of delays and some radio silence, I have no idea what's happening when it comes to Bigby's longwaited return. Even so, I still yearn for the sequel to my favorite Telltale game to finally see the light of day. With Adhoc Studio's – who penned Bigby's return – releasing a fantastic episodic story-driven experience in Dispatch last year, my appetite for Wolf Among Us 2 only intensifies. May Bigby huff and puff this year down.

14. Witchbrook

Developer(s): Chucklefish, Robotality
Platform(s): PC, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series X
Release date: TBC 2026

Witchbrook has been at the top of every cozy gamers most anticipated list since it was officially announced back in 2018. However, it's almost been eight years now and we still don't have a firm release date for the magic centered life-sim. The good news is that after it was delayed last year, the new 2026 launch window hasn't moved from the game's store pages. And, considering that we haven't got any new dev blog entries via the title's website either since December, I have my fingers crossed that we'll see it make an appearance during the Wholesome Direct on June 6. I'm craving to live out my cute pixelated witch fantasy and after a decade of waiting, it's time that we all get our hands on this one.

Ex-Uncharted lead Amy Hennig left developer Naughty Dog suddenly in 2014, and all her years of work on Uncharted 4 got dumped like a high school boyfriend. But eight years of hardcore digging by Naughty Dog fan Michael Kemp – Thekempy on YouTube – reveals Hennig's vision for the game was not fully lost, but buried deep. So, a decade after Uncharted 4: A Thief's End finally released, dataminer Kemp is, for the first time, showing fans what they could have had in a new video.

Across an hour-and-a-half, Kemp shares rare, behind-the-scenes and in-game footage of Hennig's Uncharted 4, fashioning a portrait of an action game that put more emphasis on stealth and love interest Elena Fisher than, ultimately, co-directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley's shipped version of the game. Watch Kemp's detailed video in full below.

It highlights the different characters, different actors, and ambitious set pieces Hennig had imagined focusing on for Uncharted 4, the last entry in the series she helped create in 2007. Shortly after the game begins, protagonist Nathan Drake and his wife Elena swim deep into the ocean and discover the legendary pirate Henry Avery's shipwreck, leading to a 1695 flashback where you control the swashbuckler yourself and engage in some fancy sword fighting. Nate's fellow adventurer Cutter, a fan-favorite character introduced in Uncharted 3 and only mentioned in the final Uncharted 4, later returns and helps Nate and Elena recover Henry Avery's missing treasure.

From there, there's a lot of island adventure – at one point, Nate gets stranded on a little lump of sand and needs to spear fish and crack coconuts to survive. Much of the game appears similarly pacifist and whimsical, with Nate doing a lot of sneaking around and blending into the crowd with things like a ballroom dancing mini-game. Guns are de-emphasized, presumably because of old fan criticism that Uncharted games don't allow for enough adventuring.

So, Hennig's Uncharted 4 makes a point to be unique in the franchise. Druckmann and Straley ended up putting their own inventiveness into Uncharted 4, which also focuses on Nate recovering Henry Avery's pirate treasure, with the option to play stealthily. But it somewhat tones down the mini-game hijinks.

It's just… different. Kemp explains that, while searching for cut content in Uncharted 4 to make videos in 2018, he "began finding pieces of Uncharted 4 that didn't seem to be related to anything I recognized. References to levels that didn't exist, things in the story that didn't happen." He's spent the last few years assembling these scraps to form what he calls "the most definitive breakdown of the game that Amy Hennig and her team were working on between the years of 2011 to 2014."

It's important that he did. Some fans spent years nursing their desperation to learn what Hennig wanted Uncharted 4 to really be, and recent comments from a former Naughty Dog developer suggested executives thought it was awful, fueling further fan confusion and indignation.

One YouTube commenter on Kemp's video suggests everyone can be at peace now, writing, "This was my closure for Amy Hennigs Uncharted 4."

10 years later, Uncharted 4 remains the perfect antidote to overly bleak and serious adventuring.

Recently replaying Uncharted 4: A Thief's End for the umpteenth time, this globetrotting, treasure hunting journey is still one of the best romps in gaming history. The whole Uncharted series still embodies a terrific sense of pulpy adventure. But, 10 years on, I'm beginning to feel a bit uneasy that what was once PlayStation's dominant series is feeling a bit side-lined in favor of serious, bleaker fare. Perhaps Uncharted 4 is simply destined to be an all-timer, but where's the competition?

Instead, developer Naughty Dog has well and truly entered The Last of Us mines, giving us some of the console's most harrowing drama in a miserable post-apocalypse with extremely fluid stealth combat that features some of the most violent, grittiest action I've ever seen. Likewise, while God of War has softened, it's still set in a bleak, brutal, and draining world. Even the arcadey joy of Saros is all about being trapped in an unforgiving loop.

Don't get me wrong, I've just described three of my favorite games in recent years, but, gosh, sometimes I just want to chill out, drink some iced beverages, and throw some sweet-and-salty popcorn into my mouth. Sometimes I just need a good time, and for Nathan Drake to yell at the top of his lungs as platforms crumble around him, then he headshots four generic goons and has a bit of a chuckle about doing so.

A thief's return

Yes, Uncharted 4 did close the book on Nathan Drake's adventures, giving him a final ending. But the standalone, shorter Uncharted: The Lost Legacy dropped just a year later, elegantly shifting lead adventuring duties to Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross (with Sam Drake in a supporting role). It felt like Naughty Dog still had plenty of ways to grow the Uncharted series and to continue to deliver thrilling adventures, and then it just kind of stopped.

It's a shame because, while Uncharted 3 was beginning to get a bit stale, Uncharted 4 was a serious shot in the arm that used the jump from PS3 to PS4 to push Naughty Dog's design, showing the series' action-packed formula could still innovate. Whether that's the wide-linear level that has you driving a 4x4 through a semi-open muddy world to track down artifacts, or the simple yet joyous addition of a physics-based grapple hook. Not only does flinging your rope mix up the series' simple-yet-effective ledge-hopping platforming, but it can constantly be used in enemy encounters to flank foes, getting the drop on tightly wound combat arenas from almost any angle.

Uncharted 4 also introduces dynamic stealth into those combat encounters, trading Nathan Drake's invisible Indiana Jones-like hat for Rambo's sweatband for a bit of guerilla warfare. Slipping in and out of alerts, you can pick off enemies one by one, then lose them with some deft jumping and crouching before moving in to finish more of them off. At points, some encounters can be skipped entirely if Nate can navigate unseen to an exit.

The DNA of these moments in Uncharted 4 can totally be felt in The Last of Us Part 2, where Ellie's ability to go prone and lose enemies makes for superbly satisfying and tense stealth through its overgrown urban environments. But, with its more grounded nature, it sings best when Ellie is carefully crawling around haggard couches to slice an enemy's throat, which hits different to Nathan Drake swinging into the action while unloading a full assault rifle clip and then jumping into a thug's face.

One type of combat encounter isn't necessarily better than the other, and to be honest I prefer each on different days depending on the mood I'm in. But, while The Last of Us Part 2 had the benefit of evolving on Uncharted 4's modes of play, it's a shame that the baton hasn't yet been passed back. I can only imagine what a new Uncharted that could evolve on its sister series' own innovations would look like.

It's not like Uncharted 4 even needs to innovate all that much to be a great time, though. This story of Nathan Drake, retired from treasure hunting, drawn back into a life of adventure for one last job is simply fantastic, and a commitment to having you play through some incredible set-pieces feels joyous to experience whenever I revisit it – just like a favorite, popcorn-munching movie.

The level with the heist, where you're grappling around that fancy manor and then blending into the auction, before stealthing through a high-security lockdown! The crumbling clock tower that leads directly into having Nate fight through a convoy and then ending with a high-speed chase through the streets of King's Bay! The Hardy Boys-like flashback where the Drake brothers sneak out of the catholic school in which they were raised by jumping across rooftops! Every chapter is a delight. It doesn't need to be more than it is – a tight, well-structured single-player campaign – for me to want to return to it. It all comes from the heightened sense of reality that embraces the larger-than-life possibilities that a great adventure yarn can pull us into.

Bleak concepts can feel like a shortcut to being taken seriously, something the relatively young medium of gaming definitely wants. It's perhaps telling that the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy that released around the same time as the Uncharted PS3 trilogy, which seemed to be closely inspired by it, slowly got bleaker and bleaker as it went on, until a wincing Lara Croft was brutally stabbing guards from behind.

Yet, that's also why I'm beginning to feel hopeful again. The upcoming Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis promises a return to the vibes of the PS1 original, with a confident and quippy Lara Croft ready to joyously raid some tombs. Likewise, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle felt like a return to those sensibilities in how it easily slipped on the tone of the '80s movies (which, naturally, also inspired Uncharted). It's interesting that both of those games explicitly return to classic concepts, and while I don't necessarily need a new Uncharted to star a younger Nathan Drake on an older adventure, I'd welcome it just as much as the series breaking completely new ground.

But, I'm just asking for something more, whether that's Uncharted or another blockbuster series that can capture that sense of adventure. While I appreciate that gaming can immerse me into serious worlds better than other mediums, making me think deeply about unforgiving worlds, injustice, or how bad violence might be by casting me within them – it's a shame to feel like we're getting fewer releases that can lean shamelessly and confidently into being a romp like Uncharted. Uncharted 4 is still one of the greats, totally nailing that pulpy tone while juggling moments of character drama, extreme action, and some winks to camera, even 10 years on. But, 10 years from now, I hope to have some new favorites as well.

Check out the best Uncharted games for which one you should boot up next!

The Last of Us and Uncharted studio Naughty Dog's next big game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, is apparently going to show us "a different side" to the studio, according to its lead actor, and after what's felt like an eternity of The Last of Us, it sounds like it could be the breath of fresh air fans need.

Speaking in a new interview with IGN (below), Tati Gabrielle, who plays the role of protagonist and bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, is asked if she's seen anything recently of the game that she's particularly excited for fans to see. "Literally all of it," the actor replies.

"I am excited to play myself," they continue. "I think that it's such a different side of Naughty Dog that I think people are going to get really excited for."

Gabrielle hints that it appears that the devs at Naughty Dog have "even challenged themselves" in some ways, specifically pointing to Intergalactic's world-building. Of course, with the limited amount of information we've been given about the game since its reveal at the 2024 Game Awards, it's hard to know exactly how this will go – looking at The Last of Us franchise, for example, I wouldn't say Naughty Dog's previous world-building efforts have been bad, even if a lot of it was pretty subtle (some blanks were definitely filled in in the TV adaptation), but it sounds like that's going to be more of a focus for this game.

It'll be interesting to see what this "different side of Naughty Dog" is, too. Studio head Neil Druckmann previously teased that it's "shaping up to be our wildest, most creative story yet," so it's not the first time we've heard something like this. Unless you count 2022's Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Naughty Dog hasn't released a non-Last of Us game since 2017, either, so we're definitely due for a break from the post-apocalyptic fungus fight.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet doesn't currently have a release date – previous rumors have suggested it won't be arriving this year, and given that we're already at the end of April with no indication of its launch, yeah, that'd make sense. Even so, Gabrielle is "super stoked" for it – we'll just have to wait and see what Naughty Dog has up its sleeve.

After 7 years of development, The Last of Us Online was 80% complete and was scrapped to make room for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

It seems like Todd Howard, executive producer and longtime developer at Bethesda, has a lot of admiration for Neil Druckmann, the head of Naughty Dog. According to a former dev from both studios, Howard was very inquisitive about Druckmann during their time at the home of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

Heather Cerlan, an artist who worked at Naughty Dog for a number of years before spending some time at Bethesda, speaks with Kiwi Talkz about socializing with Howard. "Me, my art director, our senior producer, and Todd, all went out to lunch after I'd been there for a week," she says.

"[Todd] actually was asking me a lot of questions about what it was like to work with Neil," she reveals. "I got the sense he either idolized Neil, or wanted to understand his process."

She says "it took her by surprise," because it "felt like he was a bit of a fanboy on Neil Druckmann, which was interesting." Indeed it is, Howard's an industry legend who's shipped several of the biggest games ever, and it's odd to think of him looking up to anyone, but then he didn't make Uncharted or The Last of Us, and if anyone will understand the kind of graft it takes for those kinds of productions to land, it's him.

Cerlan was at Bethesda from April 2018 through to April 2021, working on Starfield, following a tenure contributing to The Last of Us and a couple of Uncharted games at Naughty Dog. She muses about whether a little rivalry was going on over the Fallout and The Last of Us TV adaptations, though she's unsure where either side was up to for those while she was at Bethesda. "I think there was a little bit of competition, I don't know," she adds.

Adaptations for both properties were stop-start for much of the 2010s, probably feeding a little competitive spirit over which would get cameras rolling first. They were greenlit around the same time: The Last of Us was announced in March 2020, and Fallout the following July, but it'd take the latter an extra year to reach screens.

Either way, I hope Druckmann and Howard have since managed to have dinner together. It sounds like it's something Todd's wanted for quite some time.

The Last of Us star Troy Baker says "we've not seen the last of Joel," teases more could come from Naughty Dog "or somebody else."

A dev behind the canceled The Last of Us Online game says it was the best multiplayer game he had ever played, and he strives to never let a project die again.

The director of The Last of Us Online – which was originally going to be a part of The Last of Us Part 2 as Factions mode – Vinit Agarwal recently took to Twitter (spotted by PC Gamer), saying that "it's wild how many of my ex-colleagues still message me today saying how amazing TLOU Online was going to be," and that they think it's "still the best multiplayer game they've ever played." Back when the game was canceled, one dev called it "the highlight of my career."

Of course, like we've heard many times in recent years with Sony-backed live service titles, The Last of Us Online was eventually canceled – with Agarwal previously saying it was about 80% complete in a recent interview – however, he pledges in the tweet that he is "never going to let what I work on not see the light of day again."

Frankly, even if "best multiplayer game ever" could be seen as a bit hyperbolic, I could believe The Last of Us Online was a banger. For all its faults, The Last of Us Part 2 had great gameplay, and for a studio that has pivoted so hard into single-player cinematic-focused titles, Naughty Dog was shockingly good as a multiplayer dev. The multiplayer mode in Uncharted 2 was an absolute banger in an era where every game had a tacked on multiplayer addition, and The Last of Us 1's multiplayer mode was a tense and fantastic time. That's not to mention that Crash Team Racing is probably the studio's best game ever.

The Last of Us Part 2's major death "was controversial internally too," says former Naughty Dog dev: "The studio was pretty split."

The Last of Us Part 2's decision to kill off a major character had the developers at Naughty Dog split, according to a former dev.

On the off chance you know anything about The Last of Us Part 2 but have somehow avoided knowing about the game's major death, spoilers ahead.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz, Heather Cerlan – a former Naughty Dog artist who worked on The Last of Us and Uncharted series – was asked if the studio knew that The Last of Us 2 was going to be controversial ahead of its release. She responds, "Oh yeah, most of the studio was like, 'really you're going to...'" before pausing for the sake of spoilers. But of course, we're talking about Joel getting killed off in the opening hours of the game.

Cerlan continues, "I think the studio was pretty split on the outcome of what happens," saying "it was controversial internally too." And of course, it ended up pretty controversial outside of the studio, too, with the leaked plot details ahead of The Last of Us Part 2's release setting off an online discourse that was as obnoxious as it was for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Personally I'm in the camp of there shouldn't have been a sequel to The Last of Us in the first place, but if you have to do one, killing off Joel pretty much has to be a given, because really, what else is there to do with him after his arc in the first game? Him getting got after his actions at the end of the The Last of Us Part 1 – which was originally way more interesting without a sequel and co-creator Neil Druckmann ruining any of the interesting ambiguity it had left by saying a cure would've been made from Ellie's sacrifice – was the natural conclusion to that.

The Last of Us star Troy Baker says "we've not seen the last of Joel," teases more could come from Naughty Dog "or somebody else."

Presuming we do get The Last of Us Part 3 at some point – and as much doesn't seem unlikely – Joel probably won't be in it. No spoilers yet, but if you know you know. Nonetheless, Troy Baker, the voice actor behind the grizzled protagonist of the first Last of Us game, believes we'll see him again in some shape or form.

OK, we're about to get into spoiler territory if you've not played The Last of Us Part 2 or watched the second season of the TV show.

In a surprise twist, the former opens with Joel getting killed by a vengeful Abby for his actions in the first game, and the latter adapts this plot point wholesale. Baker didn't enjoy the moment any more the second time around, and hopes to see more performers besides himself and Pedro Pascal – Joel's actor in the HBO series – take on the mantle.

"I hope that Pedro is not the last person to play Joel," he tells Eurogamer. "I want to see this character be proliferated and iterated on in multiple mediums, whether it be TV, film, more games, comic books. I see people that cosplay as [Joel] all the time – he made an impact."

Sure enough, walking the floor of any pop culture or games convention, you're likely to spot someone in Joel's trademark dark green plaid, potentially with an Ellie in tow. They are both icons of the medium, despite how little material we've seen them in. Nonetheless, Baker is adamant we'll be seeing more of Joel at some point.

"I definitely know we've not seen the last of Joel, whether that be Naughty Dog or somebody else," he states. The definitive nature of his statement makes me think he's perhaps aware of some spin-off or other that's in the works – or he's just manifesting more work for himself.

Either way, I can believe it. If Naughty Dog itself is working on The Last of Us 3, giving another Sony team – or even Baker's own outfit which he's mulling over – some form of prequel that features Joel during the earlier years of the Cordyceps onslaught doesn't seem unlikely. The show is already running out of game narrative to adapt, no doubt prompting discussions behind the scenes of how quickly more chapters can be created.

There's also the possibility of a Joel-centric TV series or other material, since the HBO adaptation's been such a success. We could speculate forever, as the point is the possibility is high. We'll see what emerges.

The Last of Us and Death Stranding actor Troy Baker has worked with Neil Druckmann, Hideo Kojima, and many more – Now he wants to create a studio and "tell my own stories."

It sure sounds like a former Naughty Dog developer just revealed a few new details about the scrapped version of Uncharted 4 that never came to be, as he discusses a game prototype that corporate allegedly threatened to pull funding from if the team didn't improve things.

The version of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End that we know – the one that made it to store shelves – was directed by The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, but this wasn't always the case. Uncharted series creator Amy Hennig – who also served as director on Uncharted 1-3 – was previously at the helm for this one, too, but in March 2014, it was reported that she was no longer at Naughty Dog.

And this apparently wasn't early into the game's production. Nathan Drake actor Nolan North previously revealed: "We had shot Uncharted 4 with Amy Hennig for about seven months. We were well into the game." What's more, following her departure, Naughty Dog reportedly "got rid of everything we did."

Now, speaking in an interview with Reece "Kiwi Talkz" Reilly (below), it sounds like former Naughty Dog senior lighting artist Gabriel Betancourt has given more background on the situation. It's important to point out that he doesn't call out the project by name, nor does he name any of the people involved in his story, but the details seem to line up – plus, the artist himself is credited on both Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy.

"I remember this one game prototype, and I won't say which one, but there was a project that had been in production for two and a half years, almost three, and corporate had basically said, 'We're having questions about this,'" he begins. "And the franchise was successful up until that point. There was no reason to question this thing would be successful. But, at that time, the leader was surrounded by people who were always saying yes, and they were living in the glory of their success going onto their fourth project."

However, things apparently changed when a director from another team "was asked to weigh in" on the game. Betancourt recalls a story as he heard it (as he wasn't personally present) from when "that director walked in, in the room full of all these people. He picked up the controller, and he said to everyone, 'This game sucks.'"

Betancourt describes: "Everyone was quiet. People were flustered. The director of that project was angry, and you could just, you know, from what I understand, you could cut the tension in that room with a knife. And then somebody said, you know, 'That's really rude of you to say something like that.' And the director fired back, he said, 'No, but the game sucks. There's no objectives, it's hard to follow what's going on, the controls are clunky. This isn't like you guys. This isn't what we delivered in the past.'"

As you can imagine, folks apparently walked out of the meeting "really upset." However, that's not where things ended.

"Corporate looked at it and they said, 'You guys are in trouble. We're going to pull funding from this if you guys don't fix this,'" Betancourt says. "And as a result, the director of that project was pulled away – even though they had been successful – and the naysayer along with two others were put in to help fix it, and then the game had to be redone. But then, two and a half, three years later – so going on five to six years total of production – the game became a success."

Betancourt says something he "appreciated about Naughty Dog" was the philosophy that "there was a respect more for truth and honesty," even if that truth could sound "rude." Even so, he thinks that "some people did take that too far," noting that "there's got to be a way to deliver bad news in a good way."

Obviously, it's worth taking Betancourt's story with a pinch of salt – while it seems pretty likely that Uncharted 4 is the game he's referring to, by his own admission, he wasn't there when this other director supposedly criticized the project. What's more, it should be noted that Naughty Dog previously denied reports that Hennig had been forced out by Druckmann and Straley, saying they "were NOT involved in what transpired."

Even so, Betancourt offers an interesting peek into the inner workings of Naughty Dog, where truth apparently reigns supreme, even if it hurts.

While you're here, be sure to take a look at our ranking of the best Uncharted games.

Jak and Daxter fans are eating good as all three of the Naughty Dog PS2 classics now have native PC ports.

As spotted by Time Extension the team behind OpenGoal released a beta of its PC port of Jak 3, which following previous efforts now means that all three games in the trilogy are now "feature complete and fully completable" on PC. The original game in the trilogy Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is the only PC version not considered in beta as both Jak 2 and 3 feature some audio bugs and graphical issues, but for those who can look by some issues, you can now play the entire Naughty Dog series on PC with widescreen, 4K 60 FPS, and modding support – provided you own original copies of the games to dump the files off of to install the ports in the first place.

The 2020s may have had some all-time great games release, but its safe to say it's been a horrible decade for the industry in pretty much every other metric given the amount of layoffs, studio closures, game cancellations, and the rise of AI slop. But if the 2020s has given us something amazing it's got to be the decompilation and recompilation efforts that have made amazing strides for game preservation by giving once console-only titles native PC ports that not only give them a new lease on life, but allow players to tinker with them to make brilliant changes that can amount to remaster status.

And while these efforts have naturally mostly focused on Nintendo titles like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Star Fox 64, but as it becomes more popular, efforts are branching out, with the Sonic Unleashed Recompiled release in 2025 being one of the most impressive fan efforts ever. And now PlayStation fans get in on the action as one of the most iconic trilogies ever is now fully available on PC.

Nintendo 64 classic Banjo-Kazooie gets fanmade PC port with 60 FPS and widescreen, and the series creator has paid tribute in classic Gruntilda fashion: "Recompiled, oh my word! People just love the bear and bird!"

The Last of Us Online's game director Vinit Agarwal has shared that the multiplayer spin-off game was scrapped in part to make room for Naughty Dog's next single-player offering, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Per an interview with Lance E. Lee, the canceled game's director reveals the project was essentially a victim of the post-Covid video game boom. As he explains, PlayStation and countless other publishers saw gamers spending more time and money in online games than ever – no surprise there, everyone was stuck inside – but the dramatic growth didn't last long once lockdown had ended.

That's when Naughty Dog came to an impasse of sorts. "Basically, at one point, a decision had to be made: Make this game or make the next game that Neil Druckmann was directing, the president of the company," Agarwal recalls, nodding his head at the studio's upcoming space romp, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

"So, kind of naturally you can understand what happened there," he adds. "They had to pick the game that was kind of the whole bread and butter of the studio rather than this experimental game we were working on, that I believe was gonna be really big, but unfortunately couldn't see the light of day."

Agarwal says the game's sudden and "soul-crushing" cancelation "was a devastating moment," one that he only found out about 24 hours before the news became public.

What's more is that it sounds like The Last of Us Online (or whatever its name would've been) was farther along than previously thought. Naughty Dog mentioned that The Last of Us Online began pre-production shortly before The Last of Us Part 2's launch in its cancelation announcement, meaning it would've been in development for roughly four years. Agarwal now shares that the number is closer to a whopping seven years, and it was apparently around 80% finished by the time Sony took it out back.

One might wonder why Naughty Dog thought spinning off The Last of Us, a famously single-player series, into a multiplayer direction was a good idea. To that, I'd point everyone to the first The Last of Us' Factions mode, which was a surprisingly great and engrossing detour made back when big-budget games often came out with both solo and multiplayer parts.

I would've loved to see what a fleshed out version of Factions could've been, but unfortunately in today's industry, where AAA live service games require massive amounts of money and manpower, it's unlikely that Naughty Dog would've been able to upkeep a big online experience while making the luxe story-driven games it's known for at the same time.

Canceled The Last of Us Online game was "great," but former PlayStation exec says Naughty Dog had to scrap it after Bungie told them how much work it would be.

Fresh from a round of The Last of Us Part 3 hopes being raised by some vagueposting by Neil Druckmann, comments by a former lead at Naughty Dog suggest that something might be in the works. It's all kept pretty hush-hush, but it's definitely enough to keep the dream alive.

In an appearance on the Lance E Lee Podcast from Tokyo, Vinit Agarwal, previously the game director on The Last of Us Online, speaks about his experience being in such a role before leaving Naughty Dog. Having worked on the newfangled Factions for seven years before the standalone multiplayer shooter was canceled, he reveals he moved to another potential release and remained in the company for another year.

"They made me a game director on one of their future games," he says. "I stayed with that for a year, and so after a year I decided, 'No, I'm going to take the plunge, I'm going to take the risk.'"

He's nodding to his new venture, a mysterious studio based in Japan working on a game inspired by '90s anime. But of course, the part that's most eyebrow-raising is the mention of a "future game" that isn't Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which is led by Druckmann, and Agarwal continually refers to it as "Neil's game."

When The Last of Us Online was shut down, Naughty Dog stated there was "more than one" large-scale single-player release in the making, and Druckmann mentioned some sort of game in the pipeline alongside Intergalactic in May 2025. Is this another The Last of Us?

Well, it'd sure make for an easy pivot to move someone who was directing one The Last of Us game to another when the first gets cut. They already know the universe and have creative ideas for it. Naughty Dog loves trilogies, and doing Part 3 of Ellie's battles against the Cordyceps-ridden infected rounds out the main narrative nicely. Not to mention it'd be huge to have that and Intergalactic come out on the trot.

Since The Last of Us Online was canned in 2023, this other thing has now been getting tinkered with for three years, at least. Hm. Alas, this is all speculation. The company's clearly got a few irons in the fire, and whatever emerges, you can be certain it'll be massive.

The Last of Us director used Ellie and Joel's bond as a reference for his new game, but the biggest inspiration was Ico, the first that made him cry.

Neil Druckmann may have just teased the existence of The Last of Us Part 3, contributing to our collective hopium. A social media post reminiscing about the series suggests there's still more to come in Joel and Ellie's misadventures against the Cordyceps, though to what degree is kept distinctly vague.

On Instagram, Druckmann, who co-created the franchise, shared a recently unearthed sketch for an old pitch involving a male protagonist protecting a young girl on some sort of journey across a United States that's fallen apart. Sounds familiar.

"Cleaning out the garage today and stumbled on my original sketches from 2003 for a game pitch about a man, his surrogate daughter, and a trek across a broken America," he says in the caption. "Been a wild journey. Grateful for every part of it, especially the few stops that remain on the road ahead."

Oh, "the few stops that remain on the road ahead," you say? That sure sounds like another sequel is in the works. Possibly more spin-offs too. It's now been six years since the release of The Last of Us Part 2, and in that time, Druckmann's been cagey about committing to another installment.

Back in May 2025, he told people not to bet on there being any more of the zombie horror saga, as Naughty Dog continued work in earnest on its next venture, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. But now, he seems to have changed his tune slightly. Although Part 2's ending is relatively neat, a third mainline game always seemed possible, because the studio favors the neatness of trilogies – Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted all got at least one – and there'll be increased demand for more narrative runway due to the TV show.

The comments are full of people interpreting this as license to get excited. "The last line is precisely why I'm never losing hope for a Part 3," says one. "That last line pretty much confirms Part 3," speculates another.

That said, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, because this is still far from any kind of real announcement. It's fun to see what the early concepts of The Last of Us looked like, as the protagonist in the first picture is sporting a vest and jeans, with a fire torch in one hand and his more youthful companion in the other. In the second, he's older with a shirt and tie, and the girl is a teen.

There's less realism, as the studio was still in the throes of the Jak games, before pivoting towards being more cinematic for Uncharted. It truly has been a long, winding path for all involved. Whatever's coming, we can be sure it'll tear our hearts open, as is how The Last of Us tends to work.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet's been away from the spotlight, but Neil Druckmann's teasing the return of a The Last of Us actor in the sci-fi game.

Long before The Last of Us was the generational achievement in video game storytelling that it is today, there was an internal struggle at developer Naughty Dog to ensure it wasn't "just another zombie game."

The Last of Us firmly establishes itself as a story-led adventure with extreme emotional stakes in its opening scene, potentially the most devastating 20 minutes in the entire medium. And while the survival horror gameplay is expertly interwoven between story beats and morally gray character moments, there's no doubt that Joel and Ellie's relationship as surrogate father and daughter takes center stage. But apparently, that wasn't a guarantee during the early stages of development.

"I remember during The Last of Us, we had this internal fight where we had to tell the team 'it's not just another zombie game. It's going to have heart, emotion, and character. That's what this thing's all about,'" game director Bruce Straley tells GamesRadar+ at GDC 2026, adding that the development team actually built out cutscenes to convince the higher ups at Naughty Dog of the game's emotionality.

"We were trying to fight internal, almost pitch internally, 'no, it's gonna be cool, it's gonna be different.' So we did these little story vignettes - there were different scenarios where you see Joel and Ellie expressing emotion," says Straley. "In this case, Joel just told a joke over the campfire while they're chilling out. And these were the things that started being really exciting - we felt like we could shape out an emotive, emotional arc for these characters."

Of course, 13 years, a GOTY sequel, and an award-winning HBO TV adaptation later, it's hard to imagine a Last of Us without a deep story and emotionally complex characters. We might've gotten something like that had The Last of Us 2 Factions ever come to light, but Naughty Dog has long since abandoned its live-service aspirations and committed to "story-driven, character-based games" as we await Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the studio's upcoming Cowboy Bebop-inspired space adventure.

25 years since Jak and Daxter challenged Naughty Dog to find "the most beautiful thing we could pull off" on PS2, its writer "still misses" the action duo's world

After the tragic death of Catherine O'Hara, The Last of Us season 3 showrunner Craig Mazin has confirmed that the late actor would have returned in the upcoming third season.

O'Hara played Gail Lynden in The Last of Us, a therapist whose husband Joel had killed.

"I don't think it's a big spoiler to say that she was gonna be in our show again, because of course she was," Mazin said on the Scriptnotes podcast. "She's so good. But she was stolen from all of us. The thing that's upsetting me is I don't get to see her in other stuff. Like, I don't care about my show. I wanted to see her in other things, cause what else was gonna happen?"

O'Hara died on January 30, 2026 from an undisclosed illness. Along with The Last of Us, she memorably starred in Beetlejuice, Home Alone, Schitt's Creek, and many more movies and shows across her storied career.

The Last of Us season 3 is switching focus to Kaitlyn Dever's Abby, which was teased in The Last of Us season 2 ending. "The fans are really going to like it, I think, the shifting perspective onto Abby, getting some more context onto her storyline and going back in time with this season. So, I'm very excited for the fans to see it," Dever said in January.

However, creator Neil Druckmann won't be as involved as in earlier seasons this time around. "It was right when we were about to start the writers' room for season 3," Druckmann explained. "I looked at what's in front of me, what would the next season might look like, and with all the various Last of Us things I'm working on – not just the show – with all the various games I'm working on, the biggest one that takes up most of my time is Intergalactic: The Heretic Profit, our next big IP for Naughty Dog and PlayStation, it felt like I could better serve all of my responsibilities if I stayed at a higher level."

The Last of Us season 3 doesn't have a release date just yet. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the most exciting new TV shows of the year.

Split Fiction and It Takes Two director Josef Fares is worried about the future of AAA games in the face of what he sees as a AA uprising, but he knows of a few extremely high-profile studios striking the right balance of big-budget production and boundary-pushing innovation.

Talking to The Game Business, Fares expressed concern that the massive success of AA games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which was a sweep at the 2025 Game Awards, could spell trouble for the AAA industry. "I would not be able to live without a AAA title," he said. "I really want to play the blockbuster games."

In the midst of a years-long industry downsizing impacting major players like EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Xbox, PlayStation, and more, there's definitely something happening, but it's unclear how much AA development has to do with it. There's an argument to be made that developers working with tighter budgets are able to take more creative risks because they don't have to answer to investor-backed publishers - and because there's simply less on the line should their projects flop - but Fares praised a few AAA mainstays for continuing to pump out fresh new ideas on massive budgets.

"I would argue that, actually, Naughty Dog is pushing the envelope of innovation with a AAA budget," he said. "I would argue Rockstar is doing it. Nintendo is, most of the time, doing it. So you can do a big AAA title but also take innovative risks.

"But once you go over a $100 million dollar budget, you're going to be like, 'okay, shit. There's a lot of money on the table'. People are more scared. It's understandable. But it's proven that you can do it."

With Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and Rockstar's GTA 6 still on the horizon, it's an open question whether those specific studios really are still committed to taking risks despite giga publisher backing, but Nintendo, at the very least, definitely seems to march to the beat of its very distinct drum for the most part.

As far as Fares's Hazelight Studios is concerned, the company's future is decidedly in local multiplayer. "As long as the couch is there, there's going to be a need for couch co-op," COO Oskar Wolontis recently told me.

These are the best co-op games you can play right now.

One of the great disappointments of The Last of Us Part 2 was the lack of multiplayer. Factions injected more life into the first, and offered an alternative way to play if hacking through Cordyceps was stressing you out. Almost six full years after release, modders are righting Naughty Dog’s wrong for the follow-up, and fans are in awe.

The modder Speclizer revealed they were toying with the idea of bringing unofficially multiplayer to The Last of Us 2 just last week. A dab hand at constructing such things, having made several other modifications for Joel and Ellie’s zombie-infested misadventures and the God of War games, they emerged with a working model only days later.

Rough around the edges and janky as heck, a clip shows two Ellies running around a portion of the Seattle map. It's perfunctory, but the outline of a functional mode is there. Although this is co-op, the intent is for PvP at some point, and the fact it stems largely from one person is astonishing.

"Obviously it's not much right now. It’s still in the testing phase. But I appreciate the effort. Some of us were looking forward to that multiplayer Last Of Us spin-off game," posts YouTuber and streamer The Black Hokage following a retweet of the clip. "Modders out here doing what Sony was too scared to try," says another response.

There was intention for Factions to expand. Stemming from the first game, Naughty Dog put four years into a The Last of Us spin-off based around multiplayer before cancelling the project. Faced with having to maintain a resource-intensive live-service game, the studio chose to focus instead on singe-player experiences, leading to Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the company's next game, instead.

There's no indication of when any of us will get to play the mod for ourselves, but if this pace holds, it could be quite soon. Watch this space.

After Sony rejected a Horizon Zero Dawn collab, Tencent tried to pitch a new The Last of Us game instead: "I was confused"

A modder for games like The Last of Us and God of War has been working on a potential multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part 2, two years after Naughty Dog canceled its official The Last of Us online multiplayer spin-off game. The project was shut down four years into development, despite the team's praise. One developer called it "the highlight of my career."

The online entry in The Last of Us series was canceled in part so that Naughty Dog could focus its efforts on its next major single-player experience, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. After the cancellation was announced, the PC modding community began looking into the possibility of adding multiplayer into the already available The Last of Us games.

No one has been able to create online multiplayer for The Last of Us yet, but one modder is working on it with some success. Modder Speclizer recently posted a tweet showing a short video of multiplayer working in The Last of Us Part 2, though it only works locally for the moment.

They haven't promised that the mod will be completed any time soon, if at all, but the video shows some progress on a multiplayer mod with two Ellies being controlled independently. The modder adds that they "don't know if this will turn out to be anything," but they've been able to spawn two separate players in the same game.

As they say, this is early days, but it appears that they are currently exploring whether this could be turned into a full online multiplayer mod for PC. The second Ellie's movement doesn't look the smoothest, but it's a start. Certainly, one to keep an eye on.

Canceled The Last of Us Online game was "great," but former PlayStation exec says Naughty Dog had to scrap it after Bungie told them how much work it would be.

Nobody could have blamed Naughty Dog if it had continued to make Crash Bandicoot games after the '90s came to an end. After all, its four Crash PlayStation titles had sold in their millions and Crash was arguably the console's unofficial mascot. But as the PS2 was launched in 2000, the studio was working on something different for the new console.

Rather than a solo hero it created a pair of protagonists, in the form of precocious teenagers Jak and Daxter. Then instead of depicting these young heroes' world as one defined by good versus evil, like Crash Bandicoot's, Naughty Dog opted to create an environment that was shaped by mysterious, ancient beings called Precursors.

Just as important as the place they called home was that Jak and Daxter should have depth of character and believable reasons for their actions, as the writer/designer of their debut title Dan Arey explains. "I wanted Jak to have a purpose that wasn't just rescuing a princess or collecting coins, and then Daxter was our wonderful sidekick – he made everything a counterpoint or hilarious," Arey notes.

Dynamic duo

"We had started with this idea of a rich, beautiful world with some strange mystery behind it, and that was what the Precursors became.

"If you went to their island you found Dark Eco, which was energy with very special properties. We were telling you not to go to that island because there was Dark Eco there. Of course Jak, being a rebellious teenager, does just that, and then his best friend Daxter falls into this vat of Eco and becomes an Ottsel – a part otter/part weasel!"

Jak And Daxter's world required the talents of Naughty Dog's storytellers just as much as its level designers and artists so that its plot, gameplay and aesthetics had equal appeal. The studio could have considered these distinct disciplines separately, but instead it looked to how it could weave them together to form a greater whole, as Arey points out. "As the writer, as well as the game designer, I wanted to tell a story that had mystery and suspense," Arey reasons.

"A term we used was 'Narrative as reward', which is that the narrative itself was part of the joy of the game. This was a world that had to be explored, and you were going to have to figure out what Eco was and who the Precursors were. Then because we were an art-centric studio there was a constant push to find out what the most beautiful thing was that we could pull off on the PlayStation 2."

A precursor to success

In order to make Jak and Daxter's first outing – The Precursor Legacy – as immersive as possible, an open-world mission-based structure was favoured over a hub world and spoke system like the Crash Bandicoot games had used.

This structure revolved around beautifully rendered non-player characters that Jak and Daxter would meet on their adventure. Their interactions played out in cutscenes that took inspiration from the very best animated movies rather than from anything seen in earlier games.

"We had invested pretty heavily in Crash's universe, and so we decided to do the same thing with Jak and Daxter," Arey comments. "We knew we wanted to go full open world at this point, or at least reasonably open, and we were hitting the PlayStation 2 where there could be more of that. We knew that we could go to the next level. So we basically made the villagers in The Precursor Legacy the 'keys' to the next place to visit. Back in those days nobody was expecting Pixar-level authenticity, but that was what we were gunning for."

Equal attention was being paid to The Precursor Legacy's gameplay as to its character designs. More specifically, three main collectables were devised: Eco of different colours, which gave Jak powers and affected inanimate objects; Precursor Orbs, which acted as the game's currency; and Power Cells, which were often the reward for completing missions. "We wanted to have some very specific resources in the game, and we wanted to separate their uses," Arey observes.

"Players typically went in the right direction if you did the right thing with them, and we used collectables a lot for that. You thought you were making a choice, but we were helping you along with collectables that led you in that direction. We also had natural barriers so that you didn't feel like you were coming to a stop because of an invisible wall. That was why that first level was on the ocean, so that there was a natural break there."

Second helpings

The glowing reviews and millions of sales accrued by Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy clearly validated the approach its designers had taken. Its stunning visuals and seamlessly open world were singled out as setting new standards, and as soon as it had shipped, work on a sequel called Jak 2 commenced. As Arey recollects, Jak was given an upgradeable weapon in the follow-up rather than relying on unarmed combat.

"The Morph Gun was really about what we did to introduce something that you were able to modify and change, but with it still being the same thing that you were comfortable with," Arey remembers. "We gave it different capabilities that used different variations of Eco, so the Eco fed right into that. The four Eco types were very specific, and we wanted to make sure that we leaned into that concept. So the Morph Gun was a central system of using Eco with color coding. It was also the idea that each mod was its own unique play experience."

The sprawling metropolis that was created for Jak 2 was equally unique. Haven City's streets were crowded with people and its skies were full of gravity-defying Zoomer craft. A radar-like system recommended where players could go next, but the city's open world allowed them full autonomy and freedom of movement. As Arey concedes, giving players this much choice gave the game's designers considerable challenges.

"Jak 2's open-world city was really complicated," Arey acknowledges. "It pushed every limit of the PlayStation 2 at the time. We had to design it multiple times because we had so much draw distance and so many polygons that we were having real trouble. We had to give it more of a zigzag layout, so the city streets were maze-like. We also tried to build a story like that. We wanted to have a space where you could go and meet people. It was so that it felt like a real place, within the limitations of the PlayStation 2 of course."

Efforts were also made to make Jak 2's titular protagonist seem like a real person, albeit one that lived in a world of mysterious forces. Experiments with these forces pre-game left Jak able to take on a dark and powerful form by claiming Eco from fallen foes. Naughty Dog then used the toll this took and the passing of time to shape its leading man.

"We always knew that we were going to explore Dark Eco further, so that was one of the reasons we played with that. It was all about exploring good and bad," Arey considers. "We were also one of the first studios to age our hero. We wanted to have Jak evolve, and for him to become this forever changed hero. So he got exposed to Dark Eco, and had to overcome the problems of that. We were also giving you a sense that there was real depth to this character because of his experiences, and that those experiences weren't always good."

Jakked up

Judging by the praise showered on Jak 2, and the vast numbers of copies it sold, it's fair to say that Jak's character development went down well. Work on a third Jak title – Jak 3 – began soon after Jak 2's release, with its desert environment, the Wasteland, playing a key part in its design. The Wasteland also fed into ideas that Arey had for taking Jak's story forward.

"We had this idea that there was this city out in the middle of the Wasteland," Arey ponders. "We knew we were going to do a lot of open-world driving, and we also wanted to have the story continue to evolve with Jak and the search for his identity. The thing about it was we needed a place for him to go, because he knew he didn't fit in. We wanted the Wasteland to look weathered and old. It told so much story just with that look, and it also made it different from other locations in Jak's world."

Building on the introduction of the Morph Gun in Jak 2, Jak 3 featured new gun mods including one that radiated a destructive wave around the spot where Jak was standing.

Arey considers this to be a more powerful version of the spinning kick that the hero had used ever since his debut in The Precursor Legacy, in that the two attacks achieved similar effects, albeit on different scales. "Evan Wells and myself designed most of the weapons in Jak 3," he reflects.

"Part of that was just what we had learned about 3D design; that 'area of effect' was your best friend, especially in a radius sense. You really needed to clear space around you, and you did that by using the Wave Concussor, but it was true even with the basic spin. It was all about controlling the space around you. In the worst case scenario you at least had to empty the space around you, and that was always something we wanted the player to feel empowered to do."

Go the the light

More empowerment came in the form of a third identity for Jak that gave him defensive and other non-violent abilities by drawing power from Light Eco.

Arguably the most exciting of these allowed him to slow down time for his enemies while he continued to move at his normal speed, as Arey explains. "We wanted to give you this idea of time manipulation and flying and a protection shield," he enthuses.

"We had seen how Insomniac had done Spyro, where you could leap and then glide, and I thought flying in Jak 3 would be fun. But Light Jak was really because we had Dark Jak before, so of course we had to have Light Jak. It let us ask what Light Eco was, and what were its special properties? So it was flying, protection and time manipulation. Time manipulation can be so powerful if you do it right, and we got to play around with that stuff."

In keeping with its predecessors, Jak 3 received plaudits from critics and players alike. In keeping with Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot trilogy, the third Jak platformer was followed by a racing game. Jak X retained the Wasteland from Jak 3 and built on the earlier game's driving challenges, it also channelled Mad Max, which was known as The Road Warrior in the US.

"Jak X gave me a wonderful opportunity to keep telling the story," Arey beams. "We had a Road Warrior feel in Jak 3, so I thought why not continue with that? We also had a proof of concept for Jak X already thanks to the driving sections in Jak 3. Any time we had a proof of concept that would give us a leg up for the next game we would use it. Also, we had already done Crash Team Racing, and it was very successful, so we thought we would have fun with Jak and get him out racing in the Wasteland."

One of the many differences between Jak X and Crash Team Racing was their approach to meters. Rather than a speed boost meter that filled based on the time your vehicle spent in the air, Jak X's Dark Eco meter filled as your car took or received damage, with the reward being a boost to your weapons.

"We had used Hang Time in Crash Team Racing, where the more air you got the more speed boost you got," Dan remarks. "So for Jak X it was just about how we could be different again. It was trying to be unique in the sense that it wasn't a speed boost meter. It was like an early version of a rage meter, because the more damage you took the more retribution you could give, so you could dump your frustration onto a competitor. I think that's always a fun way to soften some of the pain in a game."

Branching out

Novel features such as the Dark Eco meter and the sheer challenge offered by Jak X were recognised by reviewers when the game came out, as were its many modes and rich narrative.

A year later, Jak's wise-cracking sidekick Daxter received a solo PSP title produced by Ready At Dawn rather than Naughty Dog. Knowing how popular Daxter was, and having a high opinion of the character and the actor who voiced him, Arey was more than happy to be involved in this latest project's development.

"Daxter was a hugely successful character, he had become such a fan favourite!" Arey exclaims. "We would go to conventions and stuff, and Daxter would be all people would talk about. He was voiced by Max Casella. I did a lot of work trying to find the right person for that job. I would write jokes and then Max would come in, and we would just let him run free. So we knew Daxter was important and decided to do something with him, and why not do it for the PSP? Because it was an amazing 'anywhere' gaming platform."

In order to ramp up the comedy value of Daxter's titular PSP outing, the short-tempered hero was given an occupation where he would constantly feel ridiculed. It was also a role that got players using all manner of fun-to-use equipment and vehicles. "We were thinking since he bugged people that it would be funny if he was a bug exterminator!" Arey jokes.

"But it was really just down to a brainstorm at Ready At Dawn, we were just having fun. Everything about Daxter was the economy of him being bigger than life and the silly little things he was. So we made him crawl through tight spaces, and that was indignant for him. That was what we wanted, for him to be constantly complaining about whatever he had to do! It also gave the player gadgets, and gadgets make for a good game."

This assessment was agreed with by critics, many of whom scored Daxter's PSP adventure near-perfect marks. Three years later, the Jak And Daxter series continued with The Lost Frontier by High Impact Games, which Arey also worked on. One of his lingering memories is of Daxter being given a dark, monstrous alter ego that was inspired by a classic animated short.

"There's a Warner Brothers cartoon with a little chicken that turns into a monster, like Jekyll and Hyde. That was the concept behind Dark Daxter," Dan reveals. "We loved the idea of a puffed-up mega Daxter, where for once he gets what he wants, which is to be badder and tougher. Of course, Dark Daxter had to happen after we had Dark Jak and Light Jak. His attacks were designed to change the player's response. For the Frenzy Attack we had this idea of store and release, which is a really powerful way to make the human mind respond to something."

Flight of fancy

Aside from Daxter Hulking-out, Lost Frontier took the idea of piloting gliders and Zoomers from the earlier games, as well as vehicle challenges from the Crash Bandicoot series, and rolled them all into flight combat challenges.

These pitted Jak and Daxter against Sky Pirates in a part of Jak's world that players had never seen before. Similarly to Dark Daxter, this aspect of the game took influence from classic animations, but it was also informed by an earlier Naughty Dog title.

"Going all the way back to Crash Bandicoot we had flying in that," Arey reminisces. "The idea of Jak and Daxter being in the skies and being further out in their world was also really beautiful, and Sky Pirates were just a cool idea. I just love that kind of world, whether it's Miyazaki's animations or whatever. I just love anachronistic cool flight. So it was a beautiful theme, and we wanted to go with something powerful and new."

Although it was well received when it launched, Lost Frontier marked the end of the series, although remastered PS3 versions of the original trilogy and emulation-based PS4 versions of the first four titles followed. When considering the Jak And Daxter games now, Arey cites a convergence of talent and tech for their enduring popularity, and notes their designers' desire to engage the emotions of those that played them.

"I still miss the Jak And Daxter world to this day, because I think that it was just so rich," he laments. "I loved those days. It was a beautiful time where technology and creativity meshed so well. I really do rate the gameplay in the series, especially the dynamic difficulty adjustments. We wanted people to win and we wanted them to enjoy themselves. Even when they died we wanted it to be funny! We wanted them to feel something special was happening, no matter what, so that they had an emotional reason to be playing every level."

Check out all the best platformers out there to play next

Ape Escape was a landmark title in the history of the PlayStation, being the first game that was only playable with a DualShock controller (which launched in 1997, around three years after the PlayStation's debut). Before Ape Escape's release in June 1999, several PlayStation games had added support for the DualShock's analogue controls in addition to the standard d-pad, but Ape Escape was the first title to be entirely built around the DualShock, packed with weapons, gadgets and vehicles that required full use of the two sticks, along with the newfangled L3 and R3 buttons.

Yet interestingly, right back at the start of development, there was no plan to use analog controls. Shuhei Yoshida, who worked as an executive producer on Ape Escape, recalls that the team, "Wanted to create a 3D, open-field, sandbox game like Mario 64, and they came up with the idea of capturing monkeys. So that came first. But during development, we learned from the hardware team that they were working on a new controller with two analog sticks." That discovery inspired them to create gameplay that was only possible with the DualShock.

Platform platforming

Yoshida had started working at Sony straight out of college in 1986, initially in the Corporate Strategy Group in Sony's headquarters. But as a huge videogame fan, he ended up joining Ken Kutaragi's PlayStation team in 1993. "They were already developing the actual PlayStation hardware, but they had a ritual that any new person joining the team was able to play the Nintendo version of PlayStation.

Kutaragi's team [had been] developing the all-in-one system with the Super NES and the CD-ROM as one unit, and there were a couple of games already near completion," explains Yoshida. One of the games was an unreleased shooter that was similar in concept to Game Arts' Silpheed, using 2D sprites over a 3D background that was streamed from the CD.

Yoshida was the lead account manager for Japanese publishers and developers making games for PlayStation, but in early 1996 he became a producer for Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot, since the production team at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc needed someone who could handle English communication.

"And because just handling one game wouldn't make me busy enough, I was given an assignment to grow the internal Japan Studio," Yoshida says. "At that time, there was only one full team, making Motor Toon Grand Prix games." That group would go on to create Gran Turismo and would later be spun out as Polyphony Digital.

A tiny team of three people was working on a prototype of what would become Ape Escape when Yoshida joined. The team's leader, Susumu Takatsuka, had moved across from Sega's AM2 division. "He was the animator of a fighting game called Fighting Vipers," Yoshida recalls. The other two were fresh out of college: Yuji Yamada would go on to become the game's lead programmer, while Takamitsu Iijima became a character designer.

Early stages

Yoshida and Takatsuka then hired Kenji Kaido from Taito, an experienced designer who had worked on games like Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III.

"I joined the Ape Escape team at an early stage of development," recalls Kaido. "At first, my role was to support Yoshida-san as an associate producer, but as the development progressed, I started giving ideas for the game and I took on a lead designer role as well."

The rest of the team, meanwhile, was made up of young, inexperienced graduates. "It's unbelievable now, but people out of college would join a company and stay with the company until retirement," says Yoshida. "That was kind of expected. So it was very hard to hire experienced people from the industry."

In addition to hiring graduates directly, Yoshida benefitted from Sony's Game Yaroze project, a competition where aspiring game designers could send in their ideas (Devil Dice is an example of a title that was brought to PlayStation through Game Yaroze).

"Sony Computer Entertainment was a joint venture of Sony Corporation and Sony Music Japan, and the game development team came from Sony Music Japan," explains Yoshida. "And in the music industry, they're always doing auditioning, right? So they had the same idea: let's do auditions for young game developer talent. And they were able to find and fund many good teams, but when they hired an individual applicant, they tended to hand them to me, because I was growing the internal team."

Dual shock

Back at this time, the three SCE groups in Europe, America and Japan operated pretty much autonomously.

"Each region had its own development [teams], and we didn't know what games were being made in the US and Europe," says Yoshida. "A few times a year we showed our games to other regions, and they got to pick which ones to publish, and vice versa. There was no cohesive portfolio strategy or anything, it was just three different publishers working together.

And when we showed the game Ape Escape, US marketing [said], 'So, you know, it's interesting, but can you play this game with the regular controller?' And I said, 'Oh no no, that's not the point. We are making a game only playable with the two analog sticks, the DualShock controller'. And they were like, 'Oh, that's gonna limit the audience, can you make it compatible with the regular controller?' And I was very naive, you know, from a business standpoint, a purist, [saying], 'No, no, no, that's not the point, we'll never make it compatible with regular controls!'"

It's interesting to hear that Yoshida's team met some resistance within Sony to making Ape Escape solely playable with the DualShock: from the outside, it seems to make perfect sense to create a title that showcases the DualShock's functions in order to sell more of the controllers. After all, plenty of console makers have commissioned titles in the past to showcase certain peripherals, like Atari did with the VCS' Keyboard Controllers way back in the Seventies. But some within Sony were against the idea.

"Actually, even the business company SCE had some concern about us making a game [that was] only playable with the DualShock and not playable with the regular controller," remembers Yoshida.

"I don't know who was concerned, like a legal group or a business group, or whoever, but they asked us to present the game to Ken Kutaragi himself. […] Ken's face lit up as we were showing the game, and clearly he liked what we were doing, because he was the inventor of the DualShock controller. Maybe he liked that the internal game team was making good use of the controller. So we were allowed to continue."

Monkey business

Kenji Kaido remembers that there was a lot of trial and error at the start of development. "But once we fixed on the core idea to 'catch monkeys', the overall game became clearer and clearer," he says.

"Instead of the game being changed, the game became more and more polished as we developed it further. There was one turning point that I remember, which was when we decided to target kids as the main audience. We simplified the controls after the decision."

Some early gameplay elements didn't survive, however. Yoshida remembers that originally the monkeys dropped poop. "And when you stepped on it, you'd slip, or something bad happened. And when we did playtesting, a young girl said, 'I really, really, really, really hate the poop.' So we decided to remove the poop." Instead, it was replaced with slippery banana skins that the monkeys drop behind them when you give chase.

Each monkey was given a flashing light on its head, like a police patrol car, to indicate its alertness status, from blue to yellow to red: a bit like how an exclamation mark appears over enemies' heads when they spot the player in Metal Gear Solid.

"We were all fans of Metal Gear games," smiles Yoshida. And to entice the player to capture all of the monkeys and create replay value, each one was given a name and personality, with each successful capture logged in a database.

The main baddie, the evil white monkey Specter, was designed by Takamitsu Iijima, says Yoshida. "The character was trying to be really scary, but is still childish and ends up being comical," he says. "[Takamitsu Iijima] was a huge anime fan, so I think there was lots of inspiration from Japanese anime characters."

The development of Ape Escape took around three years. "I remember everything was difficult for us," says Kaido, "but the most difficult aspect was the monkey AI. The programmer struggled a lot to develop the route search algorithm for the monkeys. The AI has to be smart to be fun, but if it is too smart, it does not feel like monkeys. It was a philosophical dilemma."

Kaido also recalls an experiment to use the DualShock's rumble capability in a novel way. "There was an idea to press a button on the player 2 controller to cause vibration for the player 1 controller to cause hindrance to the player," he says. "The idea was to make a rhythm action game mechanic like Parappa The Rapper, and if you input correctly on the player 2 controller, a vibration of different rhythm will be caused on the player 1 controller." But in the end, the idea didn't make the final cut.

"I remember coming up with the gameplay was really challenging," says Yoshida, particularly how best to use the right analog stick.

In modern games, this stick is typically used to control the camera, but in Ape Escape it was used for everything from directing your Monkey Radar gadget to spinning a hula hoop (the so-called Dash Hoop). "Coming up with those ideas was so hard, and we did so many," says Yoshida. "We prototyped and dropped so many game mechanic ideas when we didn't feel that that mechanic was using the analog stick in a really interesting way."

Progress on the project slowed to a crawl as the team came up with endless different gadgets necessitating novel uses for the right stick, only for Yoshida and the others in charge to reject them. It got to the point where one day, Yoshida came into his office to discover a note that was signed by the young people on the development team, who were begging to stop the prototyping and move on with development.

They had all written their names in a circle, with their names emanating from the middle like spokes, in order to disguise who was leading the initiative. As soon as he saw the note, Yoshida balled it up and threw it in the bin. "I announced that, 'No, we won't stop prototyping until we have enough good ideas,'" he recalls. "But eventually, I think it paid off."

Bot to the future

The middle period of the game's development was "stressful", according to Kaido, before becoming "exciting" towards the end.

But Yoshida has nothing but fond memories of working on Ape Escape. "When I get asked, out of all the games I was involved in, which game I had the most fun [on], I would say Ape Escape, because I was not only involved as a producer, but I was involved in every creative decision," he says.

"I was involved in every aspect of Ape Escape as one of the team members, so I enjoyed the process so much." Yoshida would later become less involved in the nitty gritty of day-to-day game development as he rose up Sony's ranks, eventually becoming president of SCE Worldwide Studios in 2008.

Ape Escape received a warm critical reception on its release in 1999, with IGN reviewer Doug Perry awarding it 9.5/10 and praising its "new and refreshing" analog controls. Kaido recalls that the success of the game didn't come as a surprise to the team, because it had already received a great response during pre-launch promotions.

And in terms of legacy, it's easy to draw a direct line between Ape Escape and the best PS5 games like Astro's Playroom and Astro Bot, where hunting for monkeys has been replaced by hunting for bots. "Intentionally or not intentionally, Ape Escape [showcased] the use of a new peripheral, new hardware for the platform, right?" says Yoshida.

"And Astro Bot was a really great showcase of the use of haptics or adaptive triggers on PlayStation 5. So, yeah, I can see that kind of transition or legacy. And actually, some of the members from the original Ape Escape [team] are still in Team Asobi."

Indeed, Toshitake Tsuchikura, for example, was a programmer on both Ape Escape and Astro Bot, and the latter features a section that faithfully recreates the monkey-catching gameplay of the 1999 game. "I was so happy to see that!" beams Yoshida.

Developers at Naughty Dog have reportedly spent the last seven weeks shackled to mandatory overtime, in a pinch to finish an internal demo of bounty hunter game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet by December.

Bloomberg explains staff members at The Last of Us studio have been urged to put in at least eight additional hours of work per week, and this has been true since October. Staff is preparing for a demo review by parent company Sony, and the Intergalacic team has apparently already missed multiple deadlines.

This sort of hardcore overtime, what's often referred to as bone-breaking "crunch" in the industry, has become increasingly unflattering for studios as more workers speak out against it – and Naughty Dog was once a notorious perpetrator. It acknowledged this in 2024, when quality assurance lead Patrick Goss said, "When we onboard people, we tell them that we have a reputation as a studio for crunching, and it's something that we don't want. And it's something we're not going to do anymore."

Studio lead Neil Druckmann agreed, saying, "We now have the goal for Naughty Dog to eliminate crunch."

Since then, Intergalactic developers have been asked to come into the office five days a week, as opposed to a previous three-day, hybrid arrangement, though there's a small caveat where they can't work more than 60 hours a week. Bloomberg says this is the first mandatory overtime period Naughty Dog has had in years, and it was ominously preceded by a commemorative gift for members of the Intergalactic production team earlier this year: metal coins displaying a quote from the game, "The suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end."

Though Naughty Dog's crunch is currently subsiding, some people worry it could pick back up again as Intergalactic heads towards what they say will be a mid-2027 release.

I don't care if Intergalactic blasts past 2026, a new Naughty Dog cinematic action-adventure is reason enough to be excited.

Considering I've been to jollier funerals, it's a little odd to call The Last of Us Part 2 a victory lap. But for PlayStation 4, that's exactly what it was. The PS4 had smashed it, with constant great first-party games like Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Bloodborne, along with excellent third party support. The Last of Us Part 2 was clearly intended as one last hurrah before the PS5 arrived later that same year.

So why is its remaster one of the defining games of PS5? Well, that PS4 victory lap never really ended. We've had slightly conservative sequels to Horizon, Spider-Man, God of War, and Ghost of Tsushima. Some good, some great, but none of them as brave a roll of the dice as The Last of Us 2.

Head to the next paragraph if you don't want spoilers – seriously, off you go – but this game kills its co-lead in the opening hours. It's easy to forget just how ridiculously audacious that move was. Imagine if Donkey Kong Bananza explained you had to play as DK because Diddy Kong had succumbed to bronchitis. I hope whoever opens the feedback mail at Naughty Dog got a steep raise that month.

After that merry opening, the stage is set for a violent stealth adventure that makes the first game look about as grisly as an episode of Bluey. A grimdark indictment of human nature where horses get shot in the head, supporting characters get picked off more ruthlessly than in a Game of Thrones finale, and someone can't even enjoy a spot of Hotline Miami on PS Vita without getting their throat slit. It's a lot.

Naughty Dog… You OK, hun?

At least The Last of Us Part 2 doesn't shy away from the horrors of what you're doing. I've racked up psychotic kill counts in hundreds of games, but this is one of the few where every character has a name. Plenty mocked the feature where surviving NPCs will sometimes yell one of your victims' names out when you kill them. I think it's brilliant. An upsettingly effective way of reminding you that, oh yeah, that was a person you just slaughtered. Naughty Dog are still one of the few AAA studios interested in humanizing the 'enemy' at all.

But the game isn't just good for giving you more reasons to hate yourself for perpetuating cycles of violence. This revenge quest simply feels great to play as a game. It's the best stealth adventure since Metal Gear Solid 5. Except all your lovely toys from Metal Gear haven't bothered showing up, forcing you to think on your feet in a game where simply trying to wait the enemy out is suicide. They're far too smart for such tired stealth tricks. Instead of sticking to rigid patrol routes like clockwork automatrons, the people you're up against actually communicate with each other, make smart decisions, flank you, and – oh boy – occasionally drop to their knees and beg for mercy. Sorry, bud. Not in this game.

Slowly creeping up on someone who could suddenly turn around at any moment never stops getting the pulse racing, especially with several of their friends in the wings ready to shout "Kevin!" if they witness you shanking poor Kev. It never lets you get comfortable, constantly escalating and adding nasty new complications, or a swarm of clickers just for kicks.

I'll never forget the moment where my opponents stopped loudly shouting their plans and started communicating through whistling. A sinister secret code that you can't crack, so you don't know if that whistle means 'no sign of her, let's all go home and play Uncharted instead' or 'there she is – kill, kill, kill!'

The Last of Us Part 2 throws massive set pieces at you relentlessly, moments that would be the climax to other games. A horseback chase through what's essentially a war zone might be Naughty Dog's greatest set piece ever. But my favorite thing about the game is actually something that's missing.

There's none of the tiresome yellow paint plastered everywhere to hold your hand and tell you exactly where to go. Instead the artists subtly guide you, encouraging exploration and paying attention, making for much more organic-feeling traversal. And because you have to constantly engage with it properly to progress, it sucks you in brilliantly. They've somehow made a game that's more downbeat than a kitten morgue near-impossible to put down.

Bloody, beautiful

This remaster is undoubtedly the way to play The Last of Us Part 2. A mere PS4 upscale? Please, most PS5 games wish they looked half as good as this. But it's the haptic feedback where the update truly sings. No one gets more out of Sony's machines than Naughty Dog, who gleefully ask the Astro Bot devs to hold their beer so they can get every bell and whistle out of the DualSense.

The resistance in the left trigger when you aim a gun just feels right. As does the way the rumbling adjusts whether on horseback, fleeing on foot, or walking into another one of those bloody explosive traps. And the bit where you have to shake the controller to get your torch working again is… OK, that bit's still stupid. But otherwise, this is easily one of the best games for showing off what PS5's all-timer of a pad can truly do.

There's a generous amount of extra features, too. Three 'lost levels' that were cut from the campaign give a fascinating look at the still far too murky world of game development. Hang on, they cut a party scene where Ellie could get her face painted? Christ, Naughty Dog, can't you cut her even the tiniest of breaks?

There's also a new mode, No Return, which asks the question 'what if our very serious examination of the futility of violence… was a fun roguelike!'. Decent if you just want to enjoy the excellent stealth systems, even if it does successfully kill off all the nuances of the main story. Yes, yes, violence is horrible, but if you use a molotov in this level to kill someone, we'll give you a bonus reward! I doubt we'll see that idea adapted in the TV show, but if you're reading this, Craig Mazin, I'd love to be proven wrong.

The Last of Us Part 2 is far from perfect. While it's great to see a queer relationship in such a big budget mainstream game, I still think Dina and Ellie's relationship has no spark whatsoever. They have about as much romantic chemistry as Joel does with a certain golf club. It's far too long and indulgent in places, and the overwhelmingly dour tone sometimes had me taking breaks to play something more upbeat, like Spec Ops: The Line.

But this is still the best stealth game on PS5 and almost nobody in the AAA space is taking swings as bold as what you'll find here. If this is what Naughty Dog can achieve with a mere remaster, then their upcoming first bespoke PS5 game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, might beam us to actual space.

Check out our best PS5 games ranking for what to play next!

When the announcement trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet concluded the barrage of trailers and 'world premieres' at last year's Game Awards, the jaw-dropping fidelity of its in-game cinematics captured on PS5 would have been enough for anyone watching to sit up and pay attention. But let's be real, the biggest reason to be excited was cemented at the end of this lengthy four-minute trailer came at the end as it was confirmed that this is a brand new game from Naughty Dog, "the studio that brought you Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us."

It's no understatement that the Santa Monica-based studio has been the jewel in PlayStation's crown ever since it was acquired by Sony back in 2001, all the more so with the success of The Last of Us that has gone beyond video games. I also don't think it's hyperbole to call The Last of Us Part 2 a masterpiece from the PS4 generation.

The past of us

That was however the last generation, and as the years of the PS5's life has marched on, it's just been feeling like a bad hangover that's been milked within an inch of its life. Don't get me wrong, The Last of Us Part 1 is arguably the best way to experience the post-apocalyptic story today, not just visually but also by incorporating all of the accessibility features first introduced in The Last of Us Part 2.

But while its sister studios have released new titles this generation, it feels like the most pioneering studio in Sony's stable has been forever hung up with its past success. The HBO adaptation (which it seemed studio president Neil Druckmann had also been spending too much time on, by his own admission), hasn't helped matters, nor goodness knows how much time and resources were wasted on the cancelled online multiplayer spin-off, The Last of Us Factions.

So what does Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, the studio's first new IP in more than a decade, have in store for us? Apart from its initial reveal, there really hasn't been much to go on other than that it is a sci-fi adventure that has been in development since 2020, with space bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun as its protagonist, portrayed by Tati Gabrielle. Looking nothing like Samus Aran, Jordan is once again an example of Naughty Dog crafting female leads that don't stick to convention, haters be damned.

The game will largely take place on the distant isolated planet of Sempiria where Jordan becomes stranded after pursuing a bounty in desperation. It's a set-up that's already giving me Returnal vibes (even if for those actual vibes, Housemarque's already got Saros cooking for next March), although Jordan looks more comfortable swinging a meaty energy sword at a giant killer robot in a misty alien forest. Whatever kind of game it ends up being, those few seconds of kick-ass action is still enough to make a statement that this is not another harrowingly gritty tale that we've endured with Joel and Ellie.

Sempiria is, naturally, a hostile dangerous planet where, apparently, no one who has flown to it has ever been heard from again. Though, the inclusion of Sempirian script in both the trailer and the title would suggest that it is home intelligent alien civilization – or at the very least, was. But, from the brief banter seen between Jordan and her bounty handler AJ (played by The Last of Us Part 2's co-writer and narrative lead Halley Gross), while the former slurps on a milkshake and we get a Pet Shop Boys needle drop, it's fair to say that the tone is comparably lighter than a parable on the cycle of violence.

Old dog, new tricks

That's not to say that Intergalactic is Naughty Dog going back to the days of Jak & Daxter or Uncharted (admittedly both series took darker and more mature tones over time), but there must surely also be more than just nostalgia-baiting for the trailer to proudly reference the studio's backlog. When Neil Druckmann claims that Intergalactic will have "the deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog’s history, taking our learnings from our previous franchises and pushing them beyond anything we’ve ever done before", I'm willing to bet he isn't just referring to The Last of Us.

Sony's output is undeniably packed with cinematic blockbusters, and judged on their own, God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Yotei, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 do all have their own merits, but I think they're also missing the secret Naughty Dog sauce.

No other AAA studio tells stories like it does, that is not only something that looks like it could be playing in the theater but actually has the script and performances to chuck all the awards at – and there's not been a story that has been as divisive, uncompromising and unforgettable as The Last of Us Part 2's. Photorealistic visuals have never been more in reach for studios but who else has the same painstaking care and attention to detail as the rope physics in that sequel? I'm just waiting with bated breath for it to repeat that magic and raise the bar again but for something genuinely new.

I'm slightly worried that Intergalactic may be the latest victim of Sony's tendency to reveal upcoming projects too early, as there's still no update on the game since its initial reveal nor release window. With 2026 already set for being the year of the Wolverine, it probably won't be a surprise if it ends up landing in 2027 or beyond. Nonetheless, last year's trailer was a necessary line in the sand to remind naysayers that Naughty Dog is still very much relevant, and in a post-TLOU world, its future is looking bright.

Check out our best PS5 games ranking for what to play next!

Though a couple of the video game's voice actors got to cross over in HBO's The Last of Us, Nolan North hasn't been one of them, at least not yet. He's sad about not having the chance, wishing he could've helped bring the despicable David to life for the small screen adaptation.

"My only regret is HBO didn't reach out and ask me to play David in the TV series," North tells Fall Damage. "I grow a fantastic beard when necessary." He laments it "would've been so great to have brought him to life," noting the presence of Joel performer Troy Baker in those scenes.

"Troy was his sidekick, and I think fans would’ve lost it for the two of us doing that together," North states. He and Baker are known to be great fans and occasional collaborators, and being on-screen together in such a capacity would’ve definitely been a moment for the franchise's fandom.

David is a short-lived but memorable aspect of the narrative, a cannibalistic tribal leader who captures Ellie after Joel kills one of his people. His right-hand man is James, who assists in the slaughter and torture, and they nearly get the better of Ellie before an injured Joel manages to recover and save her.

The encounter is the catalyst for a deeper dynamic in Joel and Ellie's relationship. Scott Shepherd portrays David in the show, with a menacing performance fitting of the character, while Baker is James.

North finishes by praising The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog's process. "I used to call Naughty Dog, 'Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory,'" he says. "You don't understand how it's made but it’s delicious when you get it."

12 years after The Last of Us' ambiguous ending sparked a decade of debate, creator Neil Druckmann has settled it: "Our intent was that they could have made a cure."

Troy Baker is reuniting with The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and is here to assure fans they don't need to worry; the duo is still butting heads despite him taking a supporting role.

While Troy Baker has a pretty good shot of showing up in any game you play, it's probably fair to say his work with Naughty Dog is his most iconic. Since playing Joel in The Last of Us, Baker has worked with the studio on its sequel and had a starring role in Uncharted 4 as Sam Drake (not to mention a cameo appearance in The Last of Us TV series). So it wasn't surprising to hear that he will be returning for another run as a part of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Speaking to ComicBook, Baker is asked if the clashes between him and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann are happening less since Baker isn't in the leading role this time around. Thankfully, Baker assures that there's nothing to worry about, as both are still butting heads. "Neil and I will always, it’s our vibe," Baker says, recalling a clash a few weeks prior, adding that "We just love to butt up against each other."

Baker recalls, "We were doing a table read, and I was literally like, 'Why are you giving me shit right now? I’m asking you a question!'" Adding that other cast members are like, "Our mom and dad are fighting, are we still going to Disneyland?" But despite the clashes, Baker assures, "we're fine."

Ghost of Yotei hit 3.3 million sales in its first month, making it a PS5 best-seller and putting it on track to hit the 5 million sales milestone that took Tsushima 4 months.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann says we ain't seen nothin' yet about the studio's new project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

In reality, if Druckmann had said exactly those words, that wouldn't technically be true. We saw about four and a half minutes of Intergalactic thanks to its reveal trailer that debuted at last year's Game Awards, but that's it.

That trailer offered very little insight into how the game actually plays, showing only a cinematic with protagonist and bounty hunter Jordan heading to a mysterious alien planet and squaring up with some sort of robotic creature with red eyes and a big hammer-like weapon.

Talking to Variety, Druckmann offers the vaguest possible teases and repeats common refrains about Intergalactic, calling it Naughty Dog's most ambitious and expansive game yet.

"I can tell you we're in the thick of it. We're making it, we're playing it. We're firing on all cylinders," Druckmann says. "I've said this before, but I really mean it, I'm really feeling it right now: It's the most ambitious game we've ever made. It's the most expansive game we've ever made, maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it."

More interesting to me, Druckmann also suggests the reveal trailer isn't fully representative of what's actually going on in Intergalactic.

"I'm so antsy to show it and talk about it because the trailer that we showed doesn't even scratch the surface of what this game actually is," he says. "But announcing a game like this, especially when it's new IP, especially when it's coming out of Naughty Dog, you've got to coordinate with marketing, with PR, with a bunch of people. So it'd be foolish for me to say when we're gonna show something right now."

We haven't seen any gameplay, but Druckmann himself has suggested he was inspired by Elden Ring's non-traditional, gameplay-based storytelling, although there's nothing to suggest Intergalactic's gameplay has any similarities to FromSoftware games. In this new interview, he again seems to imply Intergalactic is departing, or at least expanding upon, Naughty Dog's established style of linear, cinematic narratives.

"You could look at our previous titles and see the evolution of going from Uncharted, where we're really cutting our teeth on realistic character-action game, third-person shooter, combined with emotional storytelling," Druckmann says. "With The Last of Us, we added some RPG elements, we started playing with wide linear layouts. Continue that trajectory forward, add sci-fi and you start to get the sense of what we're doing, and then we've gotten even more ambitious than that."

Although Intergalactic has been in development for about five years, Naughty Dog is still keeping its cards incredibly close to its chest. Uncharted and The Last of Us are some of my favorite games ever, and I'm admittedly anxious about Naughty Dog apparently wanting to try something different with Intergalactic, but ultimately I'm steadied by my faith in a studio which, so far, has dropped nothing but cinematic masterpieces defined by emotionally resonant stories, polished and punchy action, and memorable characters.

Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us 2 dev's new Japan-based studio aims to make a multiplayer game with Naughty Dog-level cinematic action and a Breaking Bad-style story, and it's already playable

A former The Last of Us and Star Wars Jedi artist says that ultra realism slows everything down when it comes to developing games.

We're at the point now where AAA development is in a really weird space. The likes of Naughty Dog which would release four games in a single generation back in the PS1, PS2, and PS3 days are now looking like it won't even release one non-remake or remaster in the PS5's lifespan. There are exceptions like Insomniac Games, Obsidian, and Capcom's teams which are releasing massive games regularly, but for the most part it's taking longer and longer for sequels to emerge.

A viral Twitter thread using that one annoying image of the bloke from Tangled with the swords asked for gaming opinions, with one user named TheDavidVinc responding, "Ultra realism and AAA budgets pretty much ruined gaming." They explain that "because of that we have to wait 10 years for a new game in a franchise" and that "companies can't experiment, innovate, even try new IPs because one failure means the death of a studio."

This opinion is echoed by former The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor character artist Del Walker, who says: "Ultra realism slows everything down." Walker explains that when chasing it, that level of detail, iteration time, custom shader needs and the amount of animation blends "goes through the roof." They cite: "A simple walk into run, turn and jump can start needing 50 animations vs six if you're happy for them to move like Earthworm Jim."

Walker does concede that "obviously it's hyperbole to say it's 'ruined' games, but chasing realism has definitely negatively affected many" which has definitely manifested in the industry over the last few years with titles like Forspoken and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforming.

The Last of Us Joel actor Troy Baker says he was "woefully unprepared" for the role: "It taught me how to stop trying to convince people that I could act."

Remakes and remasters keep coming and they don't stop coming. While it's great they make older games more accessible for modern audiences who may have missed them at release, it's hard to recapture the exact same feel and essence. However, Naughty Dog co-founder Andrew Gavin thinks the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy got almost everything right. Everything "except the most important 30 milliseconds."

"When they remade Crash, they nailed the visuals. Looked great, faithful to the original, kept the spirit. Then they completely botched how jumping works," Gavin writes on LinkedIn (spotted by a ResetEra user). He then details just how the jumping was made on the PS1 original game.

"On the original PlayStation, we only had digital buttons – pressed or not pressed. No analog sticks," he writes. "Players needed different height jumps, but we only had binary input. Most games used the amateur solution: detect button press, trigger fixed-height jump. Terrible for platforming."

It may be hard to believe now, but that's how it was back in the day. "We built something borderline insane," Gavin continues. "The game would detect when you pressed jump, start the animation, then continuously measure how long you held the button. As Crash rose through the air, we'd subtly adjust gravity, duration, and force based on your input."

It's a creative solution for a common problem of the time, and not the only way Crash Bandicoot, or Naughty Dog in general, pushed forward the medium of video games. Jak & Daxter was the first game to have a seamless open world.

"Let go early = smaller hop. Hold it down = maximum height," Gavin explains. "But it wasn't binary – I interpreted your intent across those 30-60 milliseconds and translated it into analog control using digital inputs."

If you've ever played the original Crash Bandicoot, you'll have noticed just how much control you have over the orange critter. Sure, the game is tough as nails, but you really do have a lot of control over how he moves. It means it still feels great to play today, even if it looks old.

"The remake developers either didn't notice this system or thought it wasn't important," Gavin claims. "They reverted to simple fixed jumps. Then realized Crash couldn't make half the jumps in the game. Their solution was to make all jumps maximum height. Now every jump on the remake is huge and floaty. Those precise little hops between platforms are awkward. The game's fundamental jumping mechanic feels worse than the 1996 original despite running on hardware that's 1000x more powerful."

Naughty Dog was my favorite studio growing up – I even have a Krimzon Guard tattoo now – so I knew something felt off when I played the remakes, I just couldn't figure out exactly what it was about the jumping that was wrong. So, it's nice to have Gavin's full explanation of how it used to work.

"The minutiae of timing and feel matter a lot more than people realize," he concludes, and I couldn't agree more. Our Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy review even notes that "it's frustrating to come to terms with the fact that you know how to make that jump perfectly, it's just not nearly as easy to do it here [in the remake]."

If you want more jumping fun, check out our list of the best platforming games.

Five years after its release, The Last of Us Part 2 has a significant new update that lets you play through the story chronologically, and I'm starting to think Sony is gunning for Skyrim's re-release crown.

As detailed in a new PlayStation Blog, The Last of Us Part 2: Chronological Experience is a new update that's free and available to all The Last of Us 2: Remastered players today. The update pretty much does what it says on the tin – for the first time, you can now play through the entirety of The Last of Us 2's story in chronological order instead of in non-linear patches like the original release.

I consider The Last of Us 2 to be a near-perfect video game story, and some of that has to do with the order in which it's told. That said, Naughty Dog came up with the idea to rearrange its story in this update simply because it had "wondered what it would be like to experience this story chronologically."

"Through the new Chronological mode, we believe players will gain even deeper insight into Part II's narrative," Naughty Dog says. "Players will be able to see how Ellie being gifted a guitar flows so neatly into her learning to play, for example, while the journey through Seattle will showcase the fascinating parallels between Ellie and Abby's crisscrossing journeys. You'll see just how close they come into running into each other, how their actions impact each other, and more."

You have to give it to Sony; it's managed to come up with yet another reason to play The Last of Us 2 after remastering the game in 2024, bundling in a ton of new content including the No Return roguelike mode, and releasing the Complete Edition bundle and PC port in 2025. Personally, the new story arrangement is my biggest incentive yet to revisit the beautiful but utterly harrowing story for the first time since 2020.

As Naughty Dog explains, there's also a more tangible reward for playing the new story mode: Uncharted skins. That's right, if you complete Chronological Experience, you'll unlock skins that let you dress up Joel and Tommy as Nathan Drake and Sam Drake from Uncharted (pictured above). The skins are only available in the No Return mode, but it's a crossover I've been wanting to see play out for years.

The new story mode is obviously the highlight of the update, but players can also expect "a host of additional bug fixes and performance improvements," which is a little surprising given, again, the game's been out for five years.

Find out where The Last of Us 2 ranks on our list of the best PS5 games.

Naughty Dog is making its first new, non-sequel game in over a decade, and I couldn't be more excited. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet stars one of my favorite actors, Tati Gabrielle, and thanks to a former-developer's LinkedIn profile, we now have a hint at what it might be like to play as her character – the bounty hunter Jordan.

Posted to Reddit and spotted by TheGamer, Kristina Gu's LinkedIn profile states she was an associate technical designer at Naughty Dog between August, 2022 and February, 2024. In that time, she worked on The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, The Last of Us Online – rest in peace Factions 2 – and "RPG progression systems on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet."

Former Naughty Dog designer lists working on RPG progression systems for Intergalactic from r/Intergalactic

Now, before you go thinking this means Intergalactic is going to play like the new God of War games or Dragon Age, remember that The Last of Us games have what you could consider RPG systems in them, too.

The supplements you use to increase Joel and Ellie's stats such as health or listen-mode distance are basically an RPG progression system, as are the upgrades you can make for your weapons. All these things factor into how you choose to play.

So, this little detail from LinkedIn doesn't tell us a whole lot about Intergalactic, as the RPG elements could be very light like those outlined above, or they could be more in the vein of God of War or Far Cry's skill trees.

We won't know for sure until we get a gameplay trailer of some sort. It likely won't be coming out until 2027 at the earliest though, so be prepared for a long wait.

In the meantime, check out all the upcoming games of 2025 that you can get your hands on much sooner.

Ashly Burch, a prolific actor known for roles like Aloy in the Horizon games, Mel in The Last of Us 2, and Chloe Price in the Life is Strange series, is worried about AI displacement in the gaming industry, and in particular the idea of AI replacing human actors in lesser roles like NPCs and minor characters.

In a new episode of Ginx TV's The Games That Made Me series, Burch broaches the harrowing topic of the rapidly increasing presence of AI in video games, and she has a personal perspective on why that's particularly daunting for young actors trying to break into the scene.

"I am afraid of some developers trying to use AI to replace performers in roles that I cut my teeth on coming up," Burch says, adding that right now, she'd be "very surprised" and "horrified" to see "an entire open world game where every character was AI."

While that would indeed be horrifying, Burch argues that there's a greater and more immediate risk of more minor characters with fewer voice lines becoming voiced by AI. That would put inexperienced talent at risk of having an even harder time establishing a foothold in an already brutally competitive industry.

"I do think there is a risk of NPCs in those worlds or, you know, characters that are in multiplayer games that do callouts. Like, things that are maybe less sessions and maybe are not as narratively heavy," Burch said. "I could conceive of a world in which a dev might be like, 'yeah, let's just have AI do that…' if you cut away so many of these roles that younger performers need to cut their teeth and get their experience, we're gonna be losing out on our next generation of great performers."

Burch's comments are particularly pertinent now as video game actors who are participating in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, of which she's a part, are doing so primarily to protect against the unauthorized use of actors' performances through generative AI.

Horizon Zero Dawn star Ashly Burch responds to Sony's controversial AI Aloy by pushing for actor protections: "You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you're using this AI"

Season 2 of The Last of Us is marching on, and original game co-creator Neil Druckmann is setting the record straight on whether or not the Fireflies would have made a cure if Joel hadn't intervened.

Spoilers for The Last of Us Part 1 and 2.

Since The Last of Us came out in 2013, we've debated if we would have chosen to kill the Firefly doctors to save Ellie or if we would have let them study her brain, killing her, for a chance at finding a cure to the cordyceps infection ravaging the human race. It was an impossible choice: the human race, or your humanity?

A wrinkle in the choice, one that made Joel more sympathetic, was that we didn't know if the Fireflies would actually be able to make a cure. In the game itself, no one knows if Ellie's immunity can be copied or used to help other people. Would you sacrifice a child who'd essentially become your daughter for just a chance to develop a vaccine?

The debate has been raging for 12 years. The ambiguity has led to different perspectives and arguments all being true at once, keeping the game interesting all these years. But now, Druckmann has a definitive answer.

"Could the Fireflies make a cure," Druckmann asks in a clip posted to Reddit? "Our intent was that, yes, they could. Now, is our science a little shaky that now people are questioning it? Yeah, it was a little shaky and now people are questioning that. I can't say anything. All I can say is that our intent is that they would have made a cure."

Neil debunks the cure viability debate once & for all from r/thelastofus

So, there you have it, Joel doomed the world by selfishly choosing to save Ellie. No more debate is needed, it's his fault the cycle of violence continues. "That makes the most interesting philosophical question for what Joel does," Druckmann adds, but a lot of fans disagree.

"I liked the ambiguity of not knowing if there was a 100% success guarantee out of sacrificing Ellie," writes one ResetEra user. Another replies, "Agreed. It should be left unknown."

"Should have left it up in the air," states a fan on Twitter. "This makes the first game look worse… we should’ve never known," writes another.

I'm on the side of the people here. This answer flattens what was once an interesting philosophical debate into a simple trolley problem. Kill one person to save everyone - that's a no-brainer.

There's been a new push to paint Joel as a definite bad guy, removing any of the greyness from his world and the decisions it forces onto the survivors. To Abby, he's the evil man who killed her father, one of the doctors about to operate on Ellie. To Ellie, he's both the man who saved her life and took away its purpose. He was all of these things. But now, he's just the man who doomed the world.

Now that these games are solved, debate done, check out all the upcoming video game release dates. Maybe some of them will also give us endings we discuss for a decade.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has responded to backlash around the studio's next big game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and if the source of the backlash is what I think it is, I'm a little disappointed he's even giving these people any air.

I don't want to get too into the weeds for obvious reasons, but from my research it seems a vocal minority of anti-woke internet dwellers are big mad that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet stars a woman of color who happens to be bald and isn't universally considered to be conventionally attractive. The audacity, I know.

Naughty Dog disabled YouTube comments on Intergalactic's reveal trailer from last year's Game Awards after it was flooded with hateful comments directed toward protagonist Jordan's appearance. PlayStation's upload of the same trailer still has comments enabled, so you can see for yourself what some people are complaining about, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Anyway, Druckmann was asked to touch on the so-called controversy in a recent interview with Last Stand Media, and thankfully he didn't sound too phased.

"I don't know if there's much I could add to that conversation, to be honest," he said. "It's just that there's stuff happening right now with media that you just have to ignore for the most part, stick to your guns, and do what you believe in, and I feel like that's how I would want artists to carry themselves."

It's a perfectly acceptable answer, but an unnecessary one, in my opinion. I don't even like using the word controversy here, because that implies Naughty Dog did something to stir up controversy and for which Druckmann should have to explain. It didn't. We hardly know anything about Intergalactic, we haven't seen any gameplay, and the one cinematic trailer we have seen was... fine?

If anything, Naughty Dog is playing it safe with Intergalactic. It just looks like a cool, Cowboy Bebop-ey action game, and it's deeply weird to me that it's considered by some to be controversial. But in a post-Last of Us 2 world, I don't know why I'm surprised.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2

We're all very excited for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but did you know Naughty Dog has another game in the works? We don't know much about it apart from the fact Neil Druckmann is a producer rather than a director, so it could be quite different to the studio's recent games.

Back in 2023, Druckmann confirmed the studio had "other projects in the works" when he was asked about the potential of a Last of Us Part 3. We now know that one of those projects was Intergalactic, but there's not much information about to what the other (or others) could be.

What we do know is that the studio is working on "more than one ambitious, brand new single player game," which sounds like it'll be another new IP rather than a sequel or remake.

Yesterday, on the Press X to Continue YouTube channel, Druckmann said: "There's another game that's being worked on in Naughty Dog where I'm more of a producer role and I get to mentor and watch this other team and give feedback and be like the executive in the room. I enjoy all those roles. And the fact that I jump between one to the next, it makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I'm never bored."

The last original game to come out of Naughty Dog that didn't credit Druckmann as a director was 2017's Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. A lot of fans, myself included, loved Chloe and Nadine's journey, so we could be getting more of them as Nathan Drake has hung up his treasure hunting hat – figuratively, of course. He never wore a hat.

The wording of "brand new" makes it seem more likely it will be another new IP, which would be quite exciting, because in the last decade the studio has put out three sequels and three remasters or remakes.

Since we don't know much about this untitled project, and we don't even know when Intergalactic is coming out, check out all the confirmed upcoming video game release dates so you have something to look forward to.

Fans aren't the only ones who were left impressed by The Last of Us season 2 and its talented cast, as one actor in particular also caught the eye of Naughty Dog lead Neil Druckmann – so much so, in fact, that he "immediately" cast him in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 6 – "The Price."

Neil Druckmann, who worked as both the creative director on The Last of Us games and the producer of Sony's TV adaptation, reveals as much in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly following the release of the series' latest episode. On actor Tony Dalton's role as Joel's father and police officer Javier Miller, Druckmann explains he was his "first choice" after seeing his work in other shows, like Better Call Saul.

"Tony Dalton was my first choice," admits the lead. "I just loved his performance so much in Better Call Saul. I jokingly refer to him as the most charming, threatening man I've ever seen on television." It sounds like he's happy with his decision, too – so much so, in fact, that he's gone on to also cast Dalton in Naughty Dog's upcoming sci-fi adventure, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, alongside Tati Gabrielle, who plays Nora in The Last of Us.

"He immediately came to mind, and I just offered it to him on the spot," recalls Druckmann. There's no telling what Dalton's role looks like in Intergalactic just yet, however, as only a few details have been revealed about the new game. Gabrielle stars as bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun herself, stranded on a distant planet with no outside communication in a timeline set about 2,000 years from now that deviated from ours sometime in the 1980s.

Naughty Dog is keeping actors in the dark with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet: "Is this Last of Us Part 3 that we're doing?"

Naughty Dog's next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, has only just started filming some of its characters, so don't expect the game to launch any time soon.

We first learned about the game during The Game Awards 2024, where we got a look at its first trailer starring Tati Gabrielle as sci-fi protagonist Jordan A. Mun. She plays Jo Braddock in the Uncharted movie and Nora Harris in HBO's The Last of Us TV series, but real ones remember her as the badass warrior priest Gaia in The 100.

But while the game has been in development for five years already, some actors don't even know their character's name. "What I know about it is probably as much as you guys, which I think is intentional," Stephen A. Chang, who plays Jesse in The Last of Us Part 2, tells Dexerto.

"Last week, I started doing some work for the next Naughty Dog game," Chang says. "I saw the trailer, maybe a week before they released it. I didn't really know what to expect. I have a friend who's working on the game too. She's like 'Is this Last of Us Part 3 that we’re doing?' So we didn't even really know what we were getting into."

Death Stranding 2 only recently finished work with all of its actors, so this process can go on until just a few months before a game is released.

Naughty Dog is clearly weary after the catastrophic Last of Us 2 leaks, and it's taking many precautions to prevent further spoilers. Now, some actors "film in sections," Chang explains. You'd get pieces of the script. Sometimes, it's not even chronological."

Despite not knowing much about his role, Chang is "excited. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting another script and seeing where it goes. I'm trying to put the pieces together just like everyone else."

It's believed Chang is playing one of the Five Aces, a group of criminals. Alongside him are Kumail Nanjiani, Tony Dalton, and Ashley Scott. "When I was on set for my little thing, I was like 'Oh shit, this is kind of a big deal, I'm the small fish here,'" Chang jokes.

There's no word on when Intergalactic will be out, so check out all the upcoming video game release dates of 2025 so you know what to look out for.

Actor Tati Grabrielle has been connected with Naughty Dog for years now, thanks to her appearances in the 2022 Uncharted film and the ongoing The Last of Us season 2. Her starring role in the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophecy is her biggest collaboration with the studio yet, and she says she's been briefed by director Neil Druckmann on all the unfortunate baggage that can come from the worst parts of gaming fandom.

"Neil's been bootcamp-ing me," Gabrielle tells Entertainment Weekly. "I know Troy [Baker]'s experience, I know Ashley [Johnson]''s experience...I know Laura Bailey's experience." Bailey portrayed Abby in The Last of Us 2, and received a shocking - even by the standards of the gaming world - amount of harassment for the role.

Since the release of The Last of Us 2, Naughty Dog has become something of a lightning rod for vile commentary, and while Intergalactic hasn't inspired the same volume of harassers to action, the fact that its lead character is a woman of color has certainly brought some of the internet's troglodytes out of their caves.

"I got a lot of love," Gabrielle continues, "but there was a lot of hate over me being a woman, me being a woman of color, me having my head shaved, all these things that I didn't even actually initially see — I'm out of the social media zeitgeist for that reason — but once I did, Neil was like, 'Ignore it. No matter what, me and you, we're going to make something beautiful. We're going to make something that we're proud of.'"

If you're looking for more games like The Last of Us, you know where to click.

The intel is still sparse on Naughty Dog's newly announced sci-fi adventure, but that hasn't stopped Intergalactic: Heretic Prophet hopefuls from putting on their tinfoil hats to chase the mystery of a hidden QR code.

As pointed out by Twitter user Intergalacticup, a QR code can be seen pinned to a cork board at around 1:26 in the reveal trailer that debuted at The Game Awards 2024. "Let’s work together as a community to figure out what this means," they continue, detailing that they found the number 66260600410 after scanning the code themselves.

The threaded replies speak to a host of fan theories and discoveries, with the string of discovered numbers being slightly varied from person to person. One theory suggests that the numbers infer a targeted release date, but the most popular one is enough to boggle the mind of this humble writer.

"UPDATE: User @Vontadeh believes it’s Planck constant because Planck's constant has a numerical value of 6.62607004*10^-34," Intergalacticup later replied to their initial Tweet. "Not sure if this is a reach BUT it’s better then what I had which is nothing! If the community has anymore guesses don’t be afraid to shoot it!"

If you're no physicist and have found yourself more than a little bit confused, you're not the only one. In laymen's terms, Planck's constant is a set value in quantum mechanics that helps you work out a photon's energy output. Photons are teeny tiny pockets of electromagnetic radiation that have the power to move faster than the speed of light. That's about all I have for you without getting into the technical details that will escape us both, and since there's no obvious explanation for what Planck's constant could signify for the Last of Us studio other than "woo, science!" maybe the best thing to do right now is sit back and let the community's brainboxes hash this one out themselves.

As Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet locks comments on its trailer, Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead says 2025 and beyond will be an "extremely tough time to ship a game

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is coming to us from The Last of Us developer, Naughty Dog.

Originally revealed during the Game Awards 2024 showcase with an exciting debut trailer, the new game is set to be a character-driven sci-fi adventure set thousands of years into the future. Putting you in the role of bounty hunter Jordan A Mun (played by The Last of Us season 2 actor, Tati Gabrielle), we've steadily gotten more insights into the upcoming PS5 game, which has been teased as the "wildest, most creative story" from Naughty Dog, with the "deepest gameplay" yet.

We're still waiting to see more of the game in action since its initial reveal, though, so here's hoping we see the bounty hunter make another appearance soon. While we wait it out to learn more, you can find a helpful overview of all of the latest news and everything else you need to know about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet release date is unknown

Neither Naughty Dog nor PlayStation Studios has revealed the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet release date or release window. That's likely because it is years away from production.

The studio has confirmed that development started on Intergalactic back in 2020. While it is true that the team typically takes around four years between projects, it's likely that the COVID-19 pandemic has created an elongated production pipeline, which is likely one reason we've seen so many remasters and remakes from the studio of late.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet platforms

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is coming to PS5. Developer Naughty Dog is part of the PlayStation Studios group who sets its sights on building expansive PS5 exclusives.

While it is true that select PlayStation titles have come to PC (including Naughty Dog's most recent releases and remasters of The Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2), they typically arrive years after making their debut on PlayStation platforms. There was no mention of it just yet.

Still, you should also expect some pretty sweet PS5 Pro support, given that Naughty Dog is typically a brand leader for benchmark-setting at Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet trailer

The Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet trailer runs for four minutes and 33 seconds, and truly sets the scene for the upcoming IP. The teaser opens with an alien language from the planet Sempiria that is translated to reveal the harrowing words: "The suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end," talk about ominous.

The trailer then cuts to our protagonist, the bounty hunter Jordan's ship. It turns out that Jordan is on her way to that planet we mentioned earlier, Sempiria, and that said planet also has rumors and dark stories surrounding it. The clip above is stunning, showing us realistic visuals of machinery and beautiful shots of space. It also even gives us a quick look at Jordan facing a robot boss with a great red sword as well.

Everything about the new game looks phenomenal, and we can't wait to see more gameplay reveals and teasers as we head further into 2025.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet gameplay

Naughty Dog is yet to go into detail on the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet gameplay experience, so all we really have is word from studio head Neil Druckmann. He says that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet "is shaping up to be our wildest, most creative story yet," teasing that the third-person adventure will be set on the planet of Sempiria – "a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago. In fact, anyone who's flown to it hoping to unravel its mysterious past was never heard from again."

He went on to say that Intergalactic will contain "the deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog's history, taking our learnings from our previous franchises and pushing them beyond anything we've ever done before."

Ben Hanson, formerly of Game Informer, also teased that the upcoming game will be focused on the concept of "player freedom" during a MinnMax video about Intergalactic. Elden Ring is supposedly a massive inspiration for that concept when it comes to this game, too. This is seemingly backed by a 2023 interview with Druckmann (via journalist Gene Park).

"Some of the best storytelling is in gameplay and moving around the space and understanding a history of the space by just looking at it and examining it. To me, that's some of the best joy I get out of games that trust their audience to figure things out. That's the stuff I'm really intrigued by going forward," Druckman explains regarding his thoughts on Elden Ring.

Now, we aren't saying that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will be an Elden Ring clone. However, it's interesting to know that it's gameplay may be inspired by FromSoftware's mechanics involving interacting with environments and how the games' history is communicated to players.

In an interview with Variety in September 2025, Druckmann was asked if he could expand on the "deepest gameplay" a little more. While he didn't reveal much, what he did have to say is certainly intriguing:

"You could look at our previous titles and see the evolution of going from Uncharted, where we're really cutting our teeth on realistic character-action game, third-person shooter, combined with emotional storytelling," Druckmann said.

"With The Last of Us, we added some RPG elements, we started playing with wide linear layouts. Continue that trajectory forward, add sci-fi and you start to get the sense of what we're doing, and then we've gotten even more ambitious than that. So really looking forward to see how it all comes together. I think you're all going to be pleasantly surprised by it."

Excitingly, in an interview with IGN, lead actor Tati Gabrielle spoke on the project and echoed a similar sentiment to Druckmann, saying Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "such a different side of Naughty Dog that I think people are going to get really excited for".

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet story

Naughty Dog is keeping the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet story under wraps, but there is some information that we've been able to glean by studying that stunning reveal trailer. The game is set to introduce a new protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, a bounty hunter who finds themselves stranded on Sempiria – a dangerous planet that claims the lives of all who enter its orbit.

Drawing on the stranded aspect, Druckmann says Intergalactic Heretic Prophet will not only explore faith and religion, but it will also be about being lonely as you find yourself isolated on the planet.

"I really wanted to make a game about faith and religion," Druckmann says, "but also about just being lonely. So many of the previous games we've done – there's always, like, an ally, with you. I really want you to be lost in a place where you're really confused about what happened here."

Jordan is heading to the surface to claim a bounty on Colin Graves, a member of a notorious intergalactic criminal outfit called the Five Aces who terrorized the Bluestar Systems before mysteriously disappearing. It's clear from the reveal that Jordan is hunting these MIA criminals, but whether it's to lay claim to the missing loot or for more personal reasons remains to be seen.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet cast

Some of the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet cast have been revealed so far, but a few roles still remain a mystery.

The title role of protagonist Jordan A. Mun is played by Tati Gabrielle, who appeared in the first season of The Last of Us as Nora Harris, and played a part in the Uncharted movie adaptation as Jo Braddock.

Tony Dolton, who Neil Druckmann said he "immediately" cast for a role in the upcoming sci-fi adventure following his appearance in the Last of Us tv show, is also set to appear, but we don't yet know what role he'll be playing.

We also know that prolific actor Troy Baker (who's had parts in the Last of Us game as Joel as well as Death Stranding and the follow-up Death Stranding 2) is reuniting with Druckmann with an as yet unknown role in project, and we're still awaiting more information about his part.

In the aforementioned Variety interview from September 2025, Druckmann spoke on Baker, saying that, "Troy [Baker] is in the game, and it's been five years since I've worked with Troy, and I've got to do it again, and it was a lot of fun to be on the stage with him again."

Plus, Eternals actor Kumail Nanjiani is set to play the role of Colin Graves, who's a member of an intergalactic criminal outfit.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet development

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is in development at Naughty Dog, the studio responsible for some of the best PS5 games (and The Last of Us and Uncharted franchises). Studio head and game director Neil Druckmann says that the team has "been working on this brand-new adventure since 2020", meaning that development will have commenced as production on The Last of Us 2 concluded.

Given the success of the HBO Last of Us adaptation, there had been some speculation that Naughty Dog would dive straight back into that world for its next project. Still, it's great to see the studio shift gears into a new IP – its first since it unleashed Joel and Ellie on an unsuspecting world a decade ago.

The development is still in the early stages, as ideas are still being formed and changed. Neil Druckmann revealed during an episode of Sony's Creator to Creator video series back in March 2025 that the team" still have a ways to go."

"Again, these things are so complex and big, and there's so many people involved. It's like, I still don't know exactly what this thing is going to look like at the end," he continued. "I have a theory, I have an idea, but it's still evolving and changing as we're making it."

Following the release of The Last of Us Season 2, Druckmann also spoke with Variety in September 2025 about his decision to leave HBO show for The Last of Us Season 3, and touched on the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which he believes will likely be the most expensive game that studio has made to date.

"We're in the thick of it. We're making it, we're playing it. We're firing on all cylinders", Druckmann said. "I've said this before, but I really mean it, I'm really feeling it right now: It's the most ambitious game we've ever made. It's the most expansive game we've ever made, maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it."

While we wait for more info on Naughty Dog's new venture, why not dive into one of the best sci-fi games.

The actor playing Dina in The Last of Us season 2 reveals she was advised to watch cutscenes to better understand her character, but she played the games instead. 

In an interview with Flaunt, Isabela Merced - who's currently filming the role of Ellie's romantic interest - shares how she prepared to become Dina in the Naughty Dog adaptation. According to the outlet, Merced was "a huge fan" of the first season of the post-apocalyptic drama and to prepare for her audition, she played both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2 in one weekend. 

The actor says it was a tricky process as she wasn't aware of the character she was auditioning for - the only instruction was to look into the games to see its characters. "I guess I could've just gotten on YouTube and watched scenes from the game," she explains, "but it’s just so different. I am so glad I did play the game because now when I am on these sets that look just like the game, I am familiar with it."

Merced also discussed her co-star Bella Ramsey, who played Ellie in the first season of the show. "I got some really good advice from Bella," she reveals. "She really just laid it all out there and her advice has been great and true. They put people first on this set, and that’s a really lovely and often rare thing to see in this industry."

Merced isn't the only newcomer being introduced in season 2. Alongside Dina, the second season will introduce The Last of Us Part 2's dual protagonist Abby, played by Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever, and Dina's former fling Jesse, portrayed by Beef's Young Mazino. Fan favorites Ramsey and Pedro Pascal have also been confirmed to be returning, but season 2 will sometimes be "radically" different from the game - so don't start predicting the character's outcomes just yet. 

Season 2 of The Last of Us is currently being filmed in Canada and is expected to release sometime in 2025. 

Find out what else we've got to look forward to with our upcoming video game movies list. 

The Last of Us Part 2's Laura Bailey, the actor behind revenge-stricken fighter Abby, was originally going to bulk up for her physically demanding role before expecting a child.

Developer Naughty Dog recently released a documentary peeking behind the scenes of the divisive action-horror sequel, where we get some insight into Abby's development as a character and how the team shaped who she would eventually become. One central point of discussion frequently circles back to Abby's bulkier physique, which contrasts her with series protagonist Ellie and countless other heroines in video games. 

"Abby evolved over time. If you look at the concept art, the character looked very different from where we've ended up. I don't remember at what point we decided to go with someone really muscular and broad, but I remember once the idea came up, it felt really fresh," director Neil Druckmann explains in the doc below at around the 35-minute mark if you'd like to see the early concept art for yourself.

The team also wanted Abby to both mirror Joel's movements and stand in contrast to Ellie's moveset. "There's something interesting in Abby feeling a lot like Joel" continues Druckmann. So, the team built an entirely different moveset, skill tree, and combat animations for the sequel's newest playable character.

And to really sell the updated animations and heftier build, Druckmann supposedly asked Laura Bailey to match the character's physique. Bailey recounts that the director at one point said, "You should probably beef up if you're going to play her," prompting the actor to begin "deadlifting as much as possible" in preparation for the role. "So I did," she explains, "and I was training like crazy. And then I got pregnant. Eh, what are you gonna do?"

Elsewhere in the documentary, Naughty Dog revealed that the sequel was originally going to be a Bloodborne-inspired open-world adventure. The studio was also candid about its history with crunch culture, claiming that it was turning over a new leaf.

Naughty Dog has an infamous reputation for historically subjecting its employees to crunch culture - long periods of overtime that sometimes have debilitating effects on staff - but the studio recently pledged to end such practices. 

The Uncharted studio released a documentary about the making of its games just last night (February 2), specifically the dour post-apocalyptic sequel The Last Of Us Part 2. Previous reports had already detailed how some developers worked 12-hour days and weekends, sometimes neglecting their health and personal lives due to Naughty Dog's perfectionist expectations.

Crunch culture notoriously doesn't lead to smoother production cycles and even burns out developers who often leave the games industry, never to return. "I'm realizing that I can't crunch like I used to," game designer Emilia Schatz says in the doc embedded below. "I can't put everything I have into these games as much as I was able to when I first got here."

Naughty Dog's new documentary now discusses crunch through its somewhat filtered marketing lens, but it seems reluctant to delve into exactly how damaging it can be. In fact, the documentary occasionally frames crunch as a self-imposed chain. Co-director Anthony Newman explains that the company began to offer free dinners because "we know people are probably gonna want to be staying late." In context, crunch dinners are normally used to encourage workers to stay after hours, rather than simply being used as a response to overtime.

The documentary also discusses how the studio started to hammer down on crunch in the early stages of The Last Of Us Part 2. "This is the first project that's had the proper pre-production period where we have locked down - for the most part - the story, beginning, middle, and end before we started production,” director Neil Druckmann revealed. 

As we and the studio later found out, however, increased organization and improved processes "doesn't fix crunch," according to Newman, "it allows you to make a bigger game."

"We now have the goal for Naughty Dog to eliminate crunch," says Druckmann near the documentary's end. The first step in doing so was to apparently define what crunch was internally and then address issues that frequently came up in The Last Of Us Part 2's post-mortem report. 

"When we onboard people, we tell them that we have a reputation as a studio for crunching, and it's something that we don’t want. And it's something we're not going to do anymore," quality assurance lead Patrick Goss reveals. Educating new hires is one step the studio is now supposedly using to avoid crunch culture, along with removing those "crunch dinners" and regularly sending out small questionnaires to developers about the issue. Hybrid working and a more robust production department also helped matters, according to a select few developers featured in the documentary. 

We won't know whether the new strategy is fully working until the studio releases one of its upcoming single player projects now in development. But at least one developer encouragingly claimed that The Last Of Us Part 1 remake was made crunch-free.  

With Sony staring down its latest PlayStation State of Play showcase (Wednesday 5pm ET / 10pm GMT), we're here to do what we do best: speculate on what we might see during the 40-minute show that promises 15+ games. 

We're now well into the swing of 2024, with PlayStation having kicked off its busy start to the year with The Last of Us 2 Remastered – a souped-up re-release of the 2020 original for PS5, including its 'Lost Levels' cut content and a new roguelike mode named No Return – earlier this month. February is likewise set to be a busy one with Foamstars, Helldivers 2, Pacific Drive and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth all launching within a few weeks of each other, with one other PS5-exclusive, Rise of the Ronin, scheduled to land on March 22. 

Add this to a long list of console-exclusive games currently boasting a TBC release date, and there's plenty we could see at the latest State of Play broadcast. The question is, of course, what will we see over the course of the 40-minute show. We already know to expect "extended looks at Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin", so what else do we really hope pops its head above?

Sony State of Play predictions

Silent Hill 2

It's been a while since we've seen or heard anything from Bloober Team's upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, making the State of Play the most obvious place for a development update. Bloober Team – the creators of Layers of Fear among other unsettling horror ventures – has long stressed its desire to reimagine James Sutherland's twisted tour of video games' most cursed town, but not retell it. That'll be music to the ears of long-standing fans, but I'm most intrigued to see how it looks in practice. From the Blue Creek Apartments to the Lake View hotel and everything (and every thing) between, I want to be scared shitless all over again.

Death Stranding 2

Despite prior social media speculation, Death Stranding 2 didn't show itself at last year's Game Awards in LA. What was surely a worthy stage to showcase actual gameplay of Hideo Kojima's much-anticipated yet continually elusive sequel, it wasn't to be – which could set the stage for the forthcoming State of Play. Given the fact Kojima himself is thought to have scrapped the entire first version of the game's script amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, showing us what the future holds for the action-adventure game sequel at this point looking into the year ahead at least makes sense on paper.

Hideo Kojima's OD

Of course, if Hideo Kojima does feature at this incoming State of Play while showcasing Death Stranding 2, then it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest his other prospective project – OD, in collaboration with US film director Jordan Peele – will likewise appear. Following Kojima's unreleased horror game(s), Silent Hills and P.T. way back in 2014, OD is said to be a horror game "unlike any other game" and will feature The Hunger Games actor Hunter Schafer. Not much else is known about OD at this stage, meaning the forthcoming State of Play would be a nice stage to show  off some more.

Judas 

Judas, you may recall, is the debut title from Ghost Story Games, founded by BioShock director Ken Levine. Unveiled for the first time at The Game Awards in December 2022, it's thought Judas has been in the development oven for some time – after Levine founded the studio in the wake of BioShock Infinite's release in 2013. As a narrative-driven single-player shooter in a similar mold, Judas looks like a very faithful follow-up to the BioShock series, with creepy robots and a protagonist struggling to survive a bleak situation. And yet, while it undoubtedly bears a resemblance to BioShock, Ghost Story Games says it's set in a whole new universe and stars new characters. In short, we'd love to see more, please. 

The next Uncharted (or whatever Naughty Dog's on next)

This time last year, Naughty Dog had barely said it was "done" with the Uncharted series, before Sony set tongues wagging with its 'Live from PS5' short that appeared to feature Nathan Drake's daughter, Cassie Drake. Among live-action shots of Marvel's Spider-Man, Horizon: Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok, the briefest of clips showed a young woman navigating a dark cave with a flaming torch, edging towards what looked like treasure. Given the last Uncharted game, 2016's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, wrapped up with Cassie discovering her parents' discoveries before having a heart-to-heart with her father, a subsequent Cassie-shaped spin-off isn't beyond the realms of possibility. If not this, though, it'd be great to see what Naughty Dog is up to in 2024 and beyond otherwise – especially as we stare down season 2 of HBO's The Last of Us TV show. 

PS5 Pro or something even less likely 

Wouldn't it be great to get something that's properly shocking at the upcoming State of Play? Something on that maybe-not-even-real Cory Barlog sci-fi game would be lovely. As would all of the above games running on the new PS5 Pro in real-time on-stage. As would confirmation of a Dino Crisis remake. And a Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver remaster. And a Sonic Generations remaster. And a new Metro game. And, of course, Bloodborne 2. I'd bite your hand off for any of those, truth be told – but I'd be equally keen to see more from games that we know are happening, such as Slitterhead, Marvel's Wolverine, and some of the other Silent Hill games in the works to name but a few. As always, check back in with us after the showcase to laugh and/or cry at what we got right and categorically wrong. 

Here are the best PS5 games to play right now 

The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director commentary has revealed a very different ending for the Naughty Dog sequel, and I'm so glad it didn't turn out this way.

As reported by Kotaku, in The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director commentary, the game's narrative lead Halley Gross and director Neil Druckmann gave fans an insight into developing the game's story and revealed some surprising alternate endings - which definitely don't pack the same punch that the actual ones do.

This article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2.

The director's commentary shares a lot of different routes the writers considered going down, but the major one relates to killing off two major characters. Surprisingly, Lev - one of the Seraphite siblings - was never supposed to make it past Seattle and, in one draft of the script, was going to die alongside his sister Yara. 

As we know, this didn't end up happening. Instead, Lev actually becomes a key person in Abby's storyline which ends ambiguously and could go on to set up the events of a future sequel or spin-off game. On the topic of Abby, the WLF member was also set to meet her demise in one version of the game's script, according to Druckmann and Gross. 

The pair reveal that one possible ending for The Last of Us 2 would've seen Ellie drowning Abby during their Santa Barbara battle. After this, Ellie would have headed back to her hometown of Jackson (with all five fingers intact) and encountered a hostile NPC that we wouldn't have met before this point. 

This character wouldn't have any connection to Abby or her friends and was instead the parent of a character the player killed in a combat encounter earlier in the game - demonstrating to Ellie, and the players, that this revenge cycle was never going to end. This fight would have been where Ellie lost her two fingers and, in my opinion, would have felt like a much more lackluster ending. 

I'd love to find out what happens to Abby and Ellie after the events of The Last of Us 2, but we're still waiting to find out if The Last of Us Part 3 is even on the cards. 

Planning to relive this story again? Take a look at our The Last of Us 2 tips guide before jumping into the remaster. 

With The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered out in the wild, many steely survivors are likely reliving the game's most heartbreaking cutscene. But one modder has now made that scene playable in a clip that's both cathartic and even more brutal. (Spoilers ahead.)

Modder Speclizer posted the YouTube video below on January 19 - titled "TLOU 2 but you can save Joel" - showing a playable version of that brutal scene where Ellie gets her revenge much sooner. The name is somewhat misleading since Joel's golf club accident remains intact throughout, but you can now at least attempt to save him.

The Last of Us Part 2's dual storyline can take up to 32 hours to fully complete, as Ellie treks across the apocalyptic country to enact her revenge. In a more convenient turn for the character, the fan fiction above instead imagines a future where she avenges Joel in about two minutes. As bloody as it is, the remixed scene actually leads to less bloodshed than the full game. 

The modded level certainly gave some still-grieving commenters some needed catharsis. But it's amusing to me how it highlights the disconnect between the human, vulnerable Ellie we see in cutscenes versus the John Wick-type action heroine that she is when stalking through levels. That's always been a quirk in Naughty Dog's catalog, though, as these games struggle to present dramatic, grounded stories while still making the stabathon kind of fun.

Speaking of alternate scenarios that never came to be, the recently-released remastered edition features cut content from the original, one of which features a particularly harrowing flashback for Ellie. Should you want to avoid more in-game trauma, the new No Return mode plants the tense combat into a fun roguelike structure. 

Check out how to unlock every playable character in No Return.

Sony is reportedly issuing refunds for existing The Last of Us Part 2 owners who mistakenly pre-ordered the $10 PS5 remaster at full price. 

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered launched today, bringing minor technical improvements, cut content, and a whole new roguelike mode to the oppressive survival-action game. Those who own a digital or physical copy can grab the upgrade for $10, but it seems some worn fungi survivors weren't privy to the news and instead pre-ordered the game at the full $50 price.

Some of those players are now reporting that the publisher is issuing refunds on their fumble as a "gesture of goodwill." Social media users have shared images from the PlayStation Store with a message that reads: "As an owner of the PS4 digital edition of The Last of Us Part 2, a digital upgrade to the PS5 version will be available at a deeply discounted price on launch day. We didn't want you to lose out on that opportunity so, as a gesture of goodwill, we have refunded your purchase."

The refunds are apparently being sent back to the player's original payment methods so, if you happened to accidentally fork out unnecessary cash, you can save yourself $40 and nab the upgrade instead. "Rest assured," the note continues, "by purchasing the digital upgrade, you will also receive any pre-order bonuses included in your original pre-order."

Elsewhere, the fancy upgrade seems to contain heartbreak and joy in equal measure. On one side, we have a cut level that shows another harrowing flashback for Ellie, who's probably tired of harrowing flashbacks at this point. But to offset the game's neverending pain, the remaster also includes the fun No Return mode, inspired by indie greats such as Hades and Vampire Survivors.

Jumping into the apocalypse again? Find out how to unlock every playable character in The Last of Us Part 2 No Return.

The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director doesn't understand the mixed response to the re-release, arguing, "it's the best way to play."

In an interview with VCG (via Eurogamer), Matthew Gallant told the outlet that he doesn't understand "some of the consternation about what The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers," as it is "the best way to play" the Naughty Dog sequel. "If you’re a new PlayStation owner and new to the franchise, we want to get you the best experience with all the hardware features on a PS5 native version of the game"

One of the biggest takeaways from the remaster's announcement is that some players thought it was too soon after the sequel's release to warrant a re-release of any kind. The Last of Us 2 originally launched on PS4 in June 2020, and later received a PS5 patch in 2021. Now, just over two years after the patch, we've got the remaster - which adds a roguelike mode, lost levels, improved visuals and performance, and more. 

"My sense is there's an audience for this for whom the idea of a PS5 version is thrilling," Gallant continues. "I'm also speaking for myself, I'm excited we can bring this to the fans, and if it's not for everyone, that's fine." Speaking on the topic previously, the director had the same stance, explaining that the sheer amount of new content in the remaster justifies the re-release after only three years. 

There's just a couple more days before The Last of Us 2 Remastered gets released to PS5. Even before its release, fans have discovered a truly disturbing new element to one of the game's lost levels - a harrowing flashback for Ellie. 

About to jump into the Naughty Dog game for the first time? Use our The Last of Us 2 tips to prepare yourself. 

A Naughty Dog developer has warned future The Last of Us 2 Remastered players that the upcoming game's roguelike mode is "not recommended for weak hearts."

Now that 2024 is officially here, we're just days away from playing The Last of Us 2 Remastered. After being rumored for what felt like years, developer Naughty Dog unveiled the upcoming game in November 2023 - leaving fans just two months to mentally prepare to revisit Joel, Ellie, and Abby's story. Since the remaster is due on January 19, one of its developers has given fans a heads-up before they dive into the game's new roguelike mode. 

No Return will see players take on the role of Ellie, Dina, Abby, Lev, and more as they fight hordes of enemies in familiar locations - including The Last of Us Part 2's most dreaded enemy. The stressful part is that once you die in this mode, you're sent straight back to the beginning again.

As if we weren't nervous enough to come face to face with waves and waves of Clickers, Del Walker, a senior character artist at Naughty Dog, has shared a tweet from the studio regarding No Return and added: "I don't think you guys are ready for just how STRESSFUL the survive mode is for our #TLOU2remastered title." To make matters worse, the developer then adds: "Not recommended for weak hearts." Uh oh.

If this is good news for you, we're going to guess that you're already a fan of the "renaissance of roguelikes" that inspired No Return - for example, Hades or Risk of Rain. Don't worry if you're yet to get into roguelikes, though, as Naughty Dog's developers have said that its new mode borrows "broadly" from the genre and doesn't take from any specific games, meaning it's a good place to start. 

Need something to play while we wait for No Return? Take a look at our best roguelike games list.