According to a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Naughty Dog are currently working on a remake of The Last of Us for PlayStation 5.
The report claims that the project (codenamed T1X) had begun development at Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group (VASG), led by founder Michael Mumbauer. The studio primarily exists to support other first-party PlayStation developers rather than making games of their own. Recently, the VASG had even been jokingly referred to as Naughty Dog South.
Despite Sony providing inadequate attention or resources to the project, development continued before “dozens” of Naughty Dog staff were deployed to work on the project; some staff had also worked on the original game, meaning their opinions would carry more weight when it came to making key decisions. Mumbauer and his team saw this as a sign that their independence had been taken away before development on the remake was eventually handed over to Naughty Dog.
The VASG are continuing to work on the remake, but are doing so from the position they’ve been in since the team was founded in 2007. As of the end of last year, Mumbauer and other senior staff members had left the VASG.
Elsewhere within PlayStation Studios, the report also claims that Days Gone developer Sony Bend were unsuccessful in pitching a sequel for the open-world action-adventure title. Despite the game being a profitable release, PlayStation executives believed a sequel “wasn’t seen as a viable option” after the game’s lengthy development cycle and lukewarm critical reception. Nearly two years after its release, Days Gone sits at a 71 on Metacritic, considerably lower than where many first-party PlayStation games are expected to be.
Rather than work on a Days Gone sequel, it was decided that Sony Bend would be split across two projects: One team would work with Naughty Dog on a multiplayer game (presumably The Last of Us Part 2: Factions), while another team would work on a brand-new Uncharted game “with supervision from Naughty Dog”. Much alike the situation at the VASG, the decision left staff at Sony Bend unhappy and resulted in departures from top leads.
In a bid to maintain some autonomy, leadership figures at the studio requested to be removed from the Uncharted game – “they got their wish last month” according to Schreier’s report. Sony Bend are now working on a new title set to be “part of a brand new franchise”.
Schreier’s report seeks to highlight “Sony’s obsession with blockbusters”, suggesting that the company is less willing to take chances on new, creative IPs. With the success of first-party hits such as God of War (2018), The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, the report exposes Sony’s current “fixation on teams that churn out hits”.