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Why Naughty Dog Decided To Reveal ‘The Last Of Us: Part 2’ At PSX Instead Of E3

By Aaron Sass
Published on: 23:29 PST, Dec 12, 2016

Even though there was a rumor going around that Naughty Dog — the Sony-owned studio known for developing the Uncharted series and The Last of Us— was going to reveal The Last of Us: Part 2 at PlayStation Experience, no one was willing to believe it until it actually happened. Well, it happened, and it stole the show.

Earlier this year, we had heard a rumor which suggested that Naughty Dog would reveal The Last of Us: Part 2 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but they didn’t. In fact, the studio wasn’t a part of the event in any way.

When the PlayStation Experience rumor started to make the rounds, many believed that it wasn’t true simply because most people believed that Naughty Dog would hold off on the reveal until next year’s E3. Why? Because E3 is a much bigger event than PSX.

During a panel following PlayStation Experience, Neil Druckmann — who is the creative director at Naughty Dog — explained why the studio decided to show the reveal trailer for The Last of Us: Part 2, which was created roughly two years ago, at PlayStation’s annual event.

“Just real quick, there was a big discussion within Naughty Dog and within Sony about where we should show this Last of Us 2 trailer. Some people said we should wait until E3, because E3’s bigger, but we’re such fans of PSX and being here with the fans and sharing it with you guys, that this was the venue for it. There was no other option.”

Druckmann also talked about the gameplay in The Last of Us: Part 2, and he promised that there would be a gameplay reveal at some point in the near future, presumably at E3 in June of next year.

Also during the panel, Druckmann was asked if Naughty Dog would ever make a Last of Us game without Joel and Ellie — who were the protagonists in the first game, and they’ll be returning in the second game — and he said the following.

“They’re the heart of it. I don’t see it without them. That’s all I can really say. Obviously we have the infected, and the world, and there’s all these different factions, and how they’re trying to survive in this world, but, at its core, it’s about human relationships, and [Joel and Ellie] are the most important one in the story.”

The question stemmed from a statement that Druckmann made last year, where he said that he and his team at Naughty Dog were contemplating making a second Last of Us game with brand new characters. There’s also a significant portion of the game’s fans that believe that the second game shouldn’t feature Joel and Ellie. But, ultimately, he decided to bring them back because, in his opinion, the two characters are the “heart and soul” of the franchise.

As of this writing, there’s no official release date set for The Last of Us: Part 2, although Druckmann did say that the studio does have a timeline for when they’d like to release it, but he was hesitant to talk about when their target date is because they’ve learned many times in the past that things often get delayed.

Right now, there’s a ton of speculation surrounding the plot of The Last of Us: Part 2, and even though the trailer was roughly four minutes long, it didn’t show us much.

Some of the popular fan theories about The Last of Us: Part 2 involve Joel being dead, and Ellie no longer being immune to the infection, which has put their world in a post-apocalyptic state. But, as of right now, that’s just a theory, and we’ll probably find out more about the game’s plot at next year’s E3.

[Featured Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment]

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