The wait for "The Last of Us 2" continues, and the lack of updates makes it more difficult to stand by. But if the reports are to be believed, Naughty Dog is already hard at work on the sequel.
Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has said in the past that they will focus on the sequel when the single-player downloadable content (DLC) for "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" is complete.
Rumors have it that the said expansion will be released at the PlayStation Experience (PSX) next month, which means that Naughty Dog could be adding the final touches to the DLC.
This should free up the team to finally work on "The Last of Us 2," which was put on hold when Naughty Dog started the development of the final "Uncharted" game.
Before Druckmann and his fellow game director, Bruce Straley, were brought in to work on "Uncharted 4," they already had prototypes of their plans for "The Last of Us 2," which they plan to start from when they are finally ready to work on the sequel again.
"We were brainstorming ideas for 'The Last of Us 2' with new characters; ideas for TLOU 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one of those ideas. And just as we were getting close to settling or narrowing that list down, we were asked to work on Uncharted 4," Druckmann told Games Radar last year.
If the rumors about the release of the "Uncharted 4" story DLC coming next month are accurate, then "The Last of Us 2" might already be back in production.
As for a release date, speculations have it that the sequel could arrive here as early as 2018. The original was in development for four years, though, so Naughty Dog would have been working on it full time to make that date.
