The Last of Us creators are making two games simultaneously, including a secret one

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Back in March, whispers circulated about the possibility of Naughty Dog covertly developing an unforeseen project. It’s now verified that this speculation was indeed true.

  1. The studio head, Neil Druckmann, did this during a conversation on the Press X to Continue podcast. He revealed that besides the officially announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog has another project in development.
  2. Druckmann is way more into Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet than the other game. He even collaborates with other devs and writers, and sometimes has to leave the development in their hands for a while. When he returns to it, he likes some of the decisions made, while in other cases changes are necessary.
  3. Meanwhile, in Druckmann’s second, yet unannounced project, he is serving as a developer, and his main job is to mentor the team.

Neil Druckmann openly expresses his fondness for the design. The differences in his involvement across both games keep his interest from waning.

Official and unofficial details of Naughty Dog’s mysterious project

In the podcast discussion, it was made clear that Shaun Escayg is spearheading the team for this enigmatic project, similar to his role with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Additionally, Anthony Newman, known for his work on The Last of Us: Part II, is also contributing to this venture.

Druckmann did not disclose details about the type and subject matter of his second project. Contrary to some speculation, it is not The Last of Us: Part III. Instead, there are theories that this could be a fresh installment in the Uncharted series, with Cassie Drake as the main character, who happens to be Nathan’s daughter.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-55915

To date, Naughty Dog has faced challenges managing simultaneous work on multiple projects. Their initial attempt at this was in 2009 when they divided their team into two units. One group focused on developing Uncharted 3, while the other began work on the first installment of The Last of Us.

Despite efforts to keep the teams distinct, there was some overlap, and team members were frequently reassigned based on project requirements. In 2021, Evan Wells, who was then CEO of Naughty Dog, acknowledged that the studio hadn’t yet achieved a state where it had two fully independent teams operating simultaneously.

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2025-05-21 13:32