14 DAY TRIAL // Naughty Dog has confirmed that it's begun exploring ideas for a potential The Last of Us sequel, as it wants to come up with a plan that gets the staff excited before actually greenlighting a possible The Last of Us 2.
The Last of Us appeared last summer on the PS3 platform and amazed millions of gamers worldwide with a great story, an impressive gameplay experience, and a pretty intense multiplayer mode.
Currently, developer Naughty Dog is getting ready to debut The Last of Us Remastered for the PS4, which brings the same experience onto the new platform with a wide variety of visual upgrades and all the DLC.
At the same time, the studio's other team is working hard on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, which is set to also appear on the PS4 in the future.
However, now that the staff who worked on The Last of Us Remastered is shipping its product, Naughty Dog's Community Strategist, Arne Meyer, has revealed that sequel ideas are being mulled over by the senior developers.
"We're just starting to explore ideas of what more could there be in this universe and starting that decision process. That doesn't mean the end result is guaranteed," Meyer tells Videogamer about a potential The Last of Us 2.
The Naughty Dog employee also emphasizes the studio's philosophy of delivering self-contained stories in each game that don't rely on sequels to solve certain plot points or major cliffhangers.
"I think we always make a smart decision in that all of our games are self-contained stories so they don't have to continue if we don't want them to or if there's no reason for them to continue," Meyer explains.
As such, it all depends on the enthusiasm inside the studio about making a sequel and further exploring a universe that it's already created and developed with the previous game.
"It really comes down to is there something interesting in this universe we've created that we want to continue to explore? Is it something that we can get the entire team passionate about? Is it something we can get the creative directors excited about and then we could continue it?"
For now, The Last of Us creative directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley have shifted towards Uncharted 4 in order to make sure the project stays on track after the departure of former director Amy Hennig and one of its producers, Justin Richmond.