Last year, the developer Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Part II, one of the last big PlayStation 4 blockbusters. A new report now suggests the team could already be working on a PS5 game.
Last year the Naughty Dog development team released their newest PlayStation title to date with The Last of Us: Part 2. After rumors about a fresh project from the Californian studio have been circulating over the past few months, current reports now indicate that work on a new, as yet unannounced PlayStation 5 game may have already begun.
These reports have their origins in a new article by Twisted Voxel site. They first refer to various promotions and changes within Naughty Dog’s corporate hierarchy. For example, Vinit Agarwal and Richard Cambier, who both previously worked as lead designers, were appointed co-game directors in September 2020. That month there were also other promotions, for example from Maksym Zhuralov (now Principal Animator) and Max Dyckhoff (now Lead AI Engineer). Waylon Brinck was promoted to Development Director in October 2020.
All of this, as pointed out, could indicate that Naughty Dog may have started developing a new PlayStation game a few months ago. The LinkedIn profile of Robert Krekel (Audio Director) currently refers to his collaboration on a so-far unannounced new project. Furthermore, the company started hiring new employees last year to work on a PS5 game. In theory, this could be the same game.
Naughty Dog is working on a new PlayStation game is not surprising, as the team was able to celebrate great success with their latest works. Accordingly, the question arises as to what the studio could work on. Most recently, Naughty Dogs Co-President Neil Druckmann said in a statement that both The Last of Us: Part 3 and a completely new brand is conceivable as the studio’s next project.