There’s no doubt that Naughty Dog are one of the most eagerly followed developers around, with millions of fans who will play just about anything they decide to produce. Right now, the next big offering on the table is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, an action-adventure game set thousands of years in the future (though that still doesn’t have a release date).

That said, the games that the company are perhaps most well-known for these days are The Last of Us 1 and 2, both of which struck a chord with those who played, and really pushed the bounds of narrative storytelling in games forward. That said, aside from the TV adaptation, the IP has been fairly quiet since 2020 (aside from remasters), and there has been plenty of speculation about what comes next.

Now, we’ve finally had confirmation of the developer’s plans, and it should come as a welcome relief to those who were worried we might be all done with it.

As first reported by PushSquare, creative director Neil Druckmann shared a series of announcements to conclude the company’s Last of Us Day celebrations. Though he only gave us their plans in vague terms, they are working on a “couple” of exciting new projects tied to the franchise, that will expand the canon of the series beyond what we saw in the first two parts.

Following on from that, Druckmann said, ““The world of The Last of Us means a great deal to us, and we wouldn’t return to it unless we had something meaningful to say. We believe these stories are worth telling.”

It’s certainly a fair point, and it will be interesting to see exactly what approach they take to these new projects, whether it’s a direct sequel of sorts or a spin-off set in the same universe. At the same time, the appetite is still clearly there based on how many people tuned in to hear what he had to say, as well as given the figures behind the HBO show, which continues to do spectacularly well.

The major caveat here is that this initial announcement likely comes at a very early stage in the development of whatever they’re planning to do. Intergalactic is undoubtedly going to remain the focus for some time, so it really wouldn’t be a surprise if we didn’t get any new games for The Last of Us in this current decade.

That said, there was absolutely a future where we never got any The Last of Us games ever again, so we should be thankful that there are at least some coming down the pipeline. Let’s just hope they manage to live up to the legacy of the originals, then we can relax and watch the third season of the show while we wait to hear more.

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Neil Druckmann, Bruce Straley

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The Last Of Us