The Last Of Us Director Doesn't Think He Has Many Games Left In Him

28.02.2024 - 16:36 / thegamer.com / Quentin Tarantino / Neil Druckmann / Last Of Us

Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann started at the company as a gameplay programmer for Jak 3 and X: Combat Racing 20 years ago, but quickly rose in the ranks, serving as co-writer for several of the Uncharted games and as creative director on both The Last of Us titles.

While he has plans for a third The Last of Us and is working on an unannounced new IP, Druckmann doesn't see himself making big games for much longer.

I've started thinking about how many more of these games I have in me, and it's not that many.

Speaking to rapper Logic (as reported by VGC), Druckmann said that he's a big fan of director Quentin Tarantino and is intrigued by his self-imposed ten film limit. He believes that while he might stick to it, moving away from the medium after The Movie Critic, he'll still work on creative projects in other spaces like TV.

This is a path that Druckmann relates to; "I could see myself transitioning to something that's more low-key, and lower stressed, that still allows me to have this creative outlet. But you know, I've started thinking about how many more of these games I have in me, and it's not that many."

While Uncharted was a major leap for Druckmann's career, as it saw him stepping into the co-writer role, Uncharted 2 was his turning point.

"Uncharted 2 was the most fun I had making any of the games I've worked on because Uncharted 1, a lot of people loved it, but it wasn't this huge success," Druckmann said. "With Uncharted 2, we felt like we had something really special, and we knew we were flying in under the radar, and no one was going to expect what we were about to deliver.

"Everything has been incredibly stressful after Uncharted 2 because now you’re no longer flying under the radar, now everybody is expecting something to be great. And you have to think, ‘How do we make it great and how do we do it in a way that doesn’t feel like we’re just repeating ourselves?’ So you always have to make it great and new, which is really, really hard.”

Naughty Dog is working on a new game that will likely be followed by The Last of Us Part 3. How long Druckmann continues to make big games after these two projects, if at all, is up in the air, but with game development times growing, it's no surprise that he'd want to move to something more low-key.

Naughty Dog's award-winning The Last of Us series of action-adventure games focuses on Ellie, initially a teenager trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. It has also spawned a blockbuster HBO show.