Now that Naughty Dog has released its Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, fans are starting to wonder about the next Naughty Dog game – it’s tantalising to ponder the possibilities as the studio behind the Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises moves onto a new project.
In fact, it sounds like this Sony-owned game development company has at least three new games in the works at the moment. This was teased by Naughty Dog Co-President Neil Druckmann, who recently posted on Twitter to share a link to the Naughty Dog careers webpage, where the studio is currently hiring for a number of exciting-sounding roles.
Teasing what these new employees would be working on, Druckmann hinted that the company is currently working on three projects – one that he referred to with the shushing emoji, one that he referred to with the zipped-mouth emoji, and one that he referred to with the mouth-covered emoji. That makes it sound like these newbies at Naughty Dog will be put to work on no fewer than three top-secret projects.
We’re growing! Come join us and work on ????, ????, and ????! https://t.co/rKL3u4iZaq
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) February 4, 2022
So, what are the three games that Naughty Dog is working on? And of those three, which one will be the next Naughty Dog game? Those are very hot questions right now, and Druckmann has not provided any answers via official channels. However, there are plenty of rumours flying around at the moment.
Naughty Dog next game: What three games are in development?
One particularly popular prediction is that Naughty Dog is still working on some sort of The Last of Us 2 multiplayer project. Originally, there was meant to be a multiplayer mode included with The Last of Part II, but Naughty Dog decided to remove this mode from the game prior to its release in 2020.
In the Tweet embedded below, which was posted in 2019, Naughty Dog promised fans, “you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us Part II”. And seeing as the word ‘multiplayer’ pops up in many of the currently-advertised Naughty Dog careers listed in the Tweet above, it seems plausible that work is heating up on the TLoU multiplayer project that will serve as a follow-up to the original TLoU game’s Factions mode.
An update regarding multiplayer: pic.twitter.com/CUd98LgJGC
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) September 27, 2019
There is also a mention of single-player games on that job-sharing post from Druckmann, which implies that Naughty Dog is working on a solo experience as well as its multiplayer project. What could that game be?
Another popular rumour is that Naughty Dog is working on a The Last of Us remake, an ambitious retelling of the original game in this prestigious zombie-infested franchise. The original TLoU certainly shows its age when you compare it to the recent TLoU 2, so it would certainly make sense for Naughty Dog to revisit the 2013 game and bring it up to modern standards.
Plus, a shiny new version of The Last of Us would surely make a nice tie-in product for the upcoming The Last of Us TV show. Perhaps Sony could throw it in a bundle with TLoU 2 and the aforementioned TLoU multiplayer project that has been in the works for years? That would sell very well, we’d wager.
If you believe that those two rumours are somewhere near the truth, that still leaves one mystery game that is in the works at Naughty Dog. Popular guesses include The Last of Us 3 or Uncharted 5, neither of which are confirmed to be in the works. We’d assume that Naughty Dog would ‘never say never’ to revisiting those franchises, despite both of them having left off with fairly firm endings, and a whole new instalment in either series still feels like it would be a few years away at least.
Let’s not forget that Naughty Dog has worked on heaps of other games over the years, including the Crash Bandicoot franchise and the Jak & Daxter games. We’d argue that a return to platformers is very unlikely now that Naughty Dog is known for its cinematic, story-driven games, but stranger things have certainly happened. Returning to Crash Bandicoot feels like a particular long shot for Naughty Dog, though – since Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard, the Crash Bandicoot franchise is known owned by Xbox, whereas Naughty Dog is owned by Sony.
Of course, there’s always a chance that Naughty Dog is working away on a brand-new franchise, as opposed to revisiting one of its previous successes. And considering some of the hits they’ve launched before, we’d love to see what Druckmann and his company could cook up in term of a new IP.
Of all of those rumours and predictions, what will the next Naughty Dog game be? We’d predict that The Last of Us 2 multiplayer is the most likely game to come next from Naughty Dog, but we wouldn’t mind being surprised on that front! Either way, we’ll be sure to keep you informed as we learn more about the next Naughty Dog game.
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