Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann has revealed that he doesn’t plan sequels as he claims he doesn’t have the confidence to do so.
Speaking during DICE last week alongside God of War’s Cory Barlog, Druckmann, who has been involved in some of Naughty Dog’s biggest titles including Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and The Last of Us Part 1 & 2, was quizzed how his team “approach character development over multiple games.”
The game in front of us is so all consuming. I think you’re jinxing yourself if you’re starting to think about the sequel when you’re working on the first game. So when I was making The Last of Us 2, yeah, sure. Every once in a while an idea pops in your head of where it might go if we get the chance to do another one. But I just approach it as, ‘what if I never get to do another one?’ …I’m not saving some idea for the future. If there’s a cool idea, I’m doing my best to get it into here.
I’m half joking, but we just find the next game, When we made Uncharted 1, we had no idea we would do the train sequence of Uncharted 2, or where Nathan Drake would be. We figured it out when we made Uncharted 2. And eventually, [it was] the same when we worked on Uncharted 3, [and the] same when we worked on Uncharted 4, where we look back and say: ‘How do we not repeat ourselves? Where else could this character go? What else could get him back into the adventure?’
Chiming in on the subject, Barlog commented:
It is absolutely, unequivocally the most unhealthy thing ever, because it is insanely stressful to try to fold and connect each of these pieces. Because, give or take five years, there’s hundreds of people involved, and then a whole new group of people often are moved in on the next project. That’s a bunch of different… perspectives, and likes and dislikes that are going to negatively impact you setting something up that early. And they’re going to be like, ‘Let’s talk about this, because that was kind of the dumb. I don’t know if I want to do that.’
“I think for me that requires a level of confidence I just don’t have,” added Druckmann. “ Like this is going to be so successful, I know where this is going next. I’m like, I just want to focus on the next five days in front of me, let alone 10 years down the line.”
Naughty Dog is currently working on its next major title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, although rumours have persisted for over a year now that it is also working on The Last of Us Part 3.
[Source – IGN]