Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann has said that while it’s “unfortunate” that some players didn’t like The Last of Us Part II, he “stands by the game” the studio made.
In a lengthy interview with Game Informer, Druckmann was asked how Naughty Dog dealt with the intense criticism from a proportion of The Last of Us‘ fan base, to which he said that the studio knew all along that it was “making something that would be controversial.” However, the anticipated controversy wasn’t the reason behind Naughty Dog’s approach to The Last of Us II – the developer wanted to go ahead “despite” that.
“Our intention is not to upset people or alienate people, our intention is to tell a story that’s meaningful to us that we think has some value behind it, and is worth spending years of our time making,” Druckmann told Game Informer. “When we had the leaks, before anybody had a chance to play it, that’s when we got a ton of negativity, and we started questioning, ‘Is this game going to be successful at all?’ We didn’t even know how much the leak really hurt us.”
Following the leaks, fellow Naughty Dog developers reached out to Druckmann to offer support, which helped him get through the difficult time.
“Those are the people I want to make proud more than anything else,” he said of fellow Naughty Dogs. “If some percentage of the studio didn’t like the game that would just bum me out beyond repair.”
The Last of Us II went on to become a commercial hit.
[Source: Game Informer]