Neil Druckmann, the co-president of Naughty Canine and artistic director of The Final of Us, is drained. From the sound of it, he is perhaps seeking to change his profession up so he doesn’t need to take care of the stress of main a AAA staff that places out video games on the size of Sony’s flagship studio.
In a podcast (thanks, VGC) with rapper and The Final of Us Half II actor Logic, Druckmann mentioned that the whole lot Naughty Canine has performed because the studio began engaged on Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves, which launched in 2009 on the PlayStation 3, has been “extremely traumatic.” That sport was a notable pivot level for Naughty Canine, propelling the studio into the status cinematic storytelling and motion setpieces it’s recognized for now.
As the fee and workload related to big-budget video games have scaled up with every console technology, and as each Sony’s inner expectations and followers’ exterior expectations have grown as nicely, Naughty Canine’s output has grown in scope and developer pressure, culminating in The Final of Us Half II increasing the ideas of cinematic gameplay and storytelling right into a 20+ hour endeavor. It looks like the scope creep and stress could also be attending to Druckmann. He says he doesn’t suppose he’s obtained that many extra video games on this scale in him, and want to spend extra time along with his household.
“I suppose that I don’t see myself doing this eternally at this scale,” he advised Logic. “It’s only a lot, and it takes quite a bit out of you. It’s very traumatic to handle that many individuals and a number of studios worldwide. […] Yeah so, I’m simply at some extent in my life the place it’s like, you begin taking a look at, ‘what’s the tip sport right here? When is it time to name it?’”
This follows the discharge of the documentary Grounded II chronicling the event of The Final of Us Half II, during which Druckmann claimed there may be probably yet one more chapter left in The Final of Us’ story. Naughty Canine isn’t engaged on it but, however we’ll see if Druckmann sticks to the director’s chair by the point the undertaking will get underway.
Whereas the Grounded II documentary tries to color a rosy, crunch-free image of the studio, Naughty Canine has been experiencing appreciable upheaval recently, with layoffs for each its contractors and as a part of Sony-wide cuts introduced earlier this week.
