In a development that will no doubt come as welcome news to players tired of his pretentious stranglehold on Naughty Dog studios, The Last of Us series co-creator Neil Druckmann has admitted that the prospect of winding down his video game work is becoming more and more appealing to him every day.
Druckmann provided this insight into his current outlook on life during an appearance on the seventh episode of rapper Logic’s Logically Speaking podcast.
Asked by the show’s eponymous host, “Do you see yourself making video games forever, or have new passions arisen in you?”, the Naughty Dog creative director admitted that while he’s “had other opportunities that I’ve really enjoyed, like working on the HBO show, working on [The Last of Us themed haunted house for] Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios [Hollywood],” in terms of video games, “I don’t see myself doing this forever at this scale.”
“It’s just a lot, and it takes a lot out of you,” asserted the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End co-writer. “It’s just stressful to manage that many people in multiple studios worldwide.”
Turning to provide an explanation as to the main reason behind his changing attitude towards his career, Druckmann then told Logic, “You were talking [earlier in the conversation] about how you were entering this new phase in your life where your kids are number one, and I’m in a similar place where my kids are number one. My daughter is now 13, and I feel like life is pulling her away from me, so I know that time is limited so it’s very precious to me when they want to spend time with me.”
“So that’s number one,” he added. “So yeah, I’ve just hit a point in my life where it’s like, ‘What’s the endgame here? When is it time to call it?'”
And as if it weren’t clear enough from both his earlier statement (as well as his embarrassing desperate appearance on the Golden Globes’ red carpet), Druckmann then dropped a major hint that his prospective future lay in Hollywood, revealing that he had been looking to director Quentin Tarantino for inspiration as to his next career move.
“And you know, I’ve been watching a lot of interviews of Quentin Tarantino, and his whole thing is “I’m going to make 10 movies and that’s it”, and I’m very curious whether he sticks to that,” said Druckmann. “I think he’ll probably do other stuff, like he’ll do TV shows. So I could see myself transitioning to something that’s more low key and lower stress that still allows me to have this creative outlet.”
“But you know, I’ve started thinking about how many more of these games do I have in me,” he concluded his thoughts on the topic, “And it’s not that many.”
Ultimately, how many actual more future titles Druckmann will work on – and how many of them, if any, will be anything more than a graphical upgrade of either The Last of Us or The Last of Us Part II – remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, his next project set for release, the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us television adaptation, will do so sometime in 2025.
