Naughty Dog's Next Game Will Reportedly Focus on 'Player Freedom'

Naughty Dog has been working on its next project for a while now, with studio head Neil Druckmann confirming development on a new game several times. The Uncharted maker's last original release was The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020, following which the studio has released a remastered collection of two Uncharted games, a remake of 2013's The Last of Us and a remaster of the sequel. Naughty Dog has not revealed any details about its next game, but an industry insider has teased that the unannounced project would favour player freedom.

'Player Freedom' in Naughty Dog's Next Game

The information comes from Ben Hanson (as spotted by ResetEra), founder of independent games media outlet MinnMax, who claimed last week that Naughty Dog's long-awaited unannounced project will likely feature “a lot of player freedom.” While Hanson did not expand on what that player freedom would translate to in terms of gameplay, his assertion suggests the Sony-owned studio's next game could be a departure from its signature narrative-focused, hyper-linear titles that usually offer a very on-rails experience to players.

According to Hanson, a source “very in the know, who worked on the game,” told him that Naughty Dog's next game would take players by surprise. The source compared the in-development title with another existing game that features “a lot of player freedom,” Hansen revealed on The MinnMax Show last week.

Naughty Dog release The Last of Us Part 1, a remake of 2013's The Last of Us, in 2022
Photo Credit: Sony/ Naughty Dog

Neil Druckmann on Naughty Dog's Unannounced Game

While that's very little detail to get a clear idea about what Naughty Dog is working on, the claim does line up with Druckmann's recent views on the kind of games that have interested him of late. In a conversation with The Washington Post in January 2023, the Naughty Dog co-president had said that he was drawn towards games that told their stories through environment, exploration and gameplay, rather than through a traditional linear narrative.

“I'm more recently intrigued by stuff like Elden Ring and Inside that doesn't rely as much on traditional narrative to tell its story and is--I think there's some--some of the best storytelling in “The Last of Us,” a lot of it is in the cinematics. But a lot of it is in gameplay and moving around a space and understanding a history of a space by just looking at it and examining it,” Druckmann had said.

In the same interaction, Druckmann had also said that Naughty Dog was working on multiple new projects, which would be “a little bit different” from the games the studio had worked on before. “I'm really intrigued, again, never resting on our laurels and trying something a little bit new, a little bit different that not everyone is going to like, but that's okay. And, again, the stuff that we're working on now, I could tell you that the teams are very excited by the different projects we have at Naughty Dog,” he had said.

The Last of Us Part 2 featured some player freedom in the form of a mini open-world level
Photo Credit: Sony/ Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog's Next Project, The Last of Us Online and 'Part 3'

Both Druckmann and Naughty Dog have remained evasive on the details about the studio's ongoing projects. Druckmann, in a documentary about the making of The Last of Us Part 2, had said that he had an idea for a third game in the series. But Naughty Dog's next game may not be The Last of Us Part 3. In an interview with Kinda Funny last year, Druckmann had said the studio's next project was finalised, while acknowledging that fans would expect a third The Last of Us game.

“I know the fans really want The Last of Us Part 3, I hear about it all the time,” Druckmann had said in the interview. “All I can say is that — look, we're already into our next project. So, the decision has already been made. I can't say what it is, but that's the process we went through. There was a lot of consideration of different things, and we picked the thing we were the most excited for.”

For a long time, Naughty Dog had been working on a multiplayer game set in the world of The Last of Us, with the studio even releasing concept art from the project. In December 2023, however, the Uncharted developer announced that the multiplayer title had been cancelled. According to the developer, ‘The Last of Us Online' would have required a long-term commitment to push out regular updates, essentially turning Naughty Dog into a live-service studio. The company instead decided to abandon the direction it was headed and stick to making what it was good at — single-player titles.

Despite several teasers and reports about Naughty Dog's unannounced projects, the studio and its parent Sony have kept its next game tightly under wraps. Naughty Dog, one of Sony's most prestigious game studios, is yet to release an original game on the PS5, four years after the console launched.