After the recent PS5 remake, players have discovered a compelling new easter egg which suggests that Naughty Dog's next project may be a new fantasy game.
You may recall that in the opening barfight level of Uncharted 3, players could discover a newspaper hidden in the background (cleverly titled The Overseer, in reference to The Guardian) that bore the headline Scientists still struggling to understand deadly fungus. Naturally, this was a hint at what would become The Last of Us' disgusting, plant-infected monsters.
Hyoung Taek Nam, a senior conceptual artist at Naughty Dog, shares images on their ArtStation profile showing fantasy-looking figures wielding swords and sitting atop dead dragons: You know what I'm talking about, says the artist. At Summer Game Fest 2022, Naughty Dog's creative director and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann says they're working on a new project.
Now, images from the remaster of The Last of Us have surfaced, suggesting that this may be a fantasy game, or maybe an RPG. In a very similar style to the Uncharted 3 headline easter egg, hidden among the walls of The Last of Us are several pieces of what appear to be concept art.
Coupled with the information we have already received, it seems plausible that this might be the next Naughty Dog project.
Naughty Dog Central is a news website dedicated to The Last of Us, Uncharted, and the rest of the developers' catalogue. On July 23, Jonathan Benainous, Naughty Dogs senior environment texture artist, stated that, following its PS5 rerelease, a PC version of The Last of Us would be released very soon. Hopefully the same will apply to this potential new fantasy game.
In the meantime, be sure to check out some of the other greatest survival games as well as the best fantasy games on PC, to get you ready for whatever Naughty Dog might bring next.