Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has reportedly stated that he’s been working on his next game since 2020. According to reports, Druckmann revealed this during the Jewish Visionaries in Gaming discussion this week in which he appeared alongside BioShock designer Ken Levine.
A video of the event has been set to private, but people on Reddit (via Kotaku) claim Druckmann stated that he’s been working on this new game, whatever it might be, since 2020.
This would be little surprise, as Naughty Dog’s last big brand-new game, The Last of Us: Part II, was released in 2020. It makes sense that Druckmann would begin working on his next project around then. As for what the game might be, that’s anyone’s guess, but there have been clues.
Following the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, Naughty Dog confirmed that it is working on two single-player games. One of these is expected to be The Last of Us: Part III and the other is a mystery. In May this year, Druckmann said the new game he’s working on is very exciting to him, and that’s he feels “maybe the most excited” in his life about whatever the game is. “I can’t talk about it or our bosses will get very mad at me,” he said.
In addition to a potential new The Last of Us game, HBO is bringing back The Last of Us TV series with its sophomore season in Spring 2025. Druckmann is involved in the production of the show, in addition to his responsibilities in video game development.
Some are hoping that Naughty Dog might bring back the Uncharted series, but no one should get their hopes up about that. Naughty Dog has said it is “done” with the franchise (though a different team could, of course, make its own Uncharted game).