Neil Druckmann Wanted to Change the Gaming Industry With ‘The Last of Us’

The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2 are two of the most critically acclaimed games in the industry. These were created by Neil Druckmann, the current co-president of Sony’s first-party studio Naughty Dog.

He pitched the idea for the game to multiple people on multiple occasions, but mostly got ignored. And when Naughty Dog gave him a small team and a game director in Bruce Straley, he did not let that opportunity go to waste.

And it does not seem like he has any intention of stopping.

The Last of Us changed how the gaming industry saw women

Long ago, Neil Druckmann took the stage to present his ideas and motivations for TLOU at the studio’s offices in Santa Monica in 2011. He told his audience how he and co-writer and narrative director Bruce Straley wanted to change the role of women in video games.

Ellie and Tess were two characters that challenged Joel in every way. They did not wait for him to open doors for them; they did not treat him as the leader, and they took charge when they needed to.

Ellie eventually becomes the leader and the responsibility for Joel’s well-being fell on her shoulder. And when she had a relationship in the game, it was also in a very different taste.

This just goes to show how hellbent the developers of this game were on changing everything, yet Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain happened and Quiet was introduced as a character in it.

Eventually, Straley left Naughty Dog. Druckmaann decided to follow The Last of Us with a sequel. A sequel that wanted to change the gaming industry even more. This time around, Naughty Dog decided to give names to enemy characters. When players killed them, their friends would scream their names in agony. It was done to make players feel their pain.

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Same for enemy dogs. On the whole, Neil Druckmann made players kill numerous enemies to teach them killing is bad. For some it worked, for others, it did not. On the whole, that game again was met with critical acclaim and got numerous awards.

Though it did not change as much this time around, fans loved it, and Neil Druckmann established himself as the game creator who wants to change the industry.

And that’s why on January 9, he would be giving an interview on The Washington Post. We cannot wait to see what he has to say about the state of gaming today.

Naughty Dog has multiple new projects in the works

Naughty Dog is currently working on a number of new projects. One of them is the already announced Factions game. It is based on the multiplayer mode of the original Last of Us.

The second project is the Last of Us 3. Neil Druckmann has hinted that he is working on it a number of times now. Fans are excited about this one for sure. The last project is the Uncharted game. Naughty Dog is not directly involved with this one, but they would be assisting the studio that is developing it.

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Let us see how everything ends up. Currently, we are most excited about the upcoming HBO series based on The Last of Us!