Neil Druckmann has made an interesting announcement in a recent podcast.
In a recent episode of Press X To Continue, Druckmann said this:
There’s another game that’s being worked on in Naughty Dog where I’m more of a producer role and I get to mentor and and watch this other team and give feedback and be like the executive in the room I enjoy all those roles. And the fact that I jump between one to the next; it makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I’m never bored.
Druckmann also spoke at length about making video games, and also The Last Of Us HBO show. He spoke about the collaborative nature of both media, between Craig Mazin, and the producers at Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. He referred to being pleasantly surprised finding out what people were making either at HBO or at Naughty Dog, as he splits his time between companies and productions.
Druckmann seemed to have his name closely associated with Naughty Dog’s biggest projects, between Uncharted and The Last Of Us. There’s even some rumors and speculation that he may have been a bit too controlling behind the scenes. But based on his own words, it seems that he’s content to split creative duties with others. Maybe that’s a consequence of working through HBO and learning how much compromise and give and take you have to do in the Hollywood system.
Of course, Druckmann did not drop any hints about what this unannounced game is. At least the perception he seems to want to share with us is, just like with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, he is taking on more of a mentorship and/or management role, instead of being the person who makes all the big decisions and is mostly responsible for them.
So Druckmann’s name may still have a lot of brand value, but Naughty Dog’s future games may not feel like Druckmann projects as much as fans expect or hope. But then, every longstanding studio does reach a point where they have to decide how they are going to grow; if that means they will support their founders in new creative directions, if they will seek out new directions themselves, if they nestle comfortably into niches that they can make their own, or if they try their hand in a little bit of everything, if they’re big and monied enough to do so.
If Druckmann is willing to reveal it exists now, we may not have to wait all that long for a reveal. Sony definitely needs to show the public more original IP, and even if this game isn’t ready to release, as is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, maybe it’s close enough to reveal, possibly next month.
