Last Of Us director shows Sony put the words in his mouth

Earlier this week, Sony released an interview with The last of us director Neil Druckmann on the future of video games. The president of Naughty Dog reportedly said that the PlayStation studio’s next game “could redefine dominant perceptions of video games.” In a shocking twist, Druckmann now says he never actually said that.

The interview in question was presented alongside a Sony strategic briefing to its investors. In addition to renting the potential for generative AI to transform the way games are made, Druckmann appeared to make a big statement about Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated upcoming PlayStation 5 game. “I can’t wait to see how this new game resonates, especially after the success of The last of usas it could redefine dominant perceptions of the game,” the interview reads.

In addition to being covered by several media, including IGN who called it “big words”, the quote also went viral on social media, where it received a lot of criticism. This reaction prompted Druckmann to correct the facts.

“That’s not quite what I said,” the video game veteran tweeted on May 24. “In editing my rambling answers during my recent interview with Sony, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost. Well, here is the complete, rambling answer to the last question about our future game.”

Druckmann then shared an excerpt from the raw, unedited transcript of his conversation with the anonymous interviewer. In it, he talks about how gaming was very niche and isolated from the rest of the culture when he was growing up, and how that has changed since then, thanks in part to hit TV shows like HBO’s adaptation of The last of us And Amazon’s adaptation of To fall.

“I’m not only excited about this game we’re making – and it’s something really new for us – but I’m also excited to see how the world responds to it,” the transcript reads. “Due to The last of us, and the success of the series, people even outside of the game are watching to see what we release next. I’m very excited to see what the reaction to this thing will be.

Although interviews are often shortened for reasons of clarity and length, the one published on the Sony website made a surprising number of cuts and, even worse, invented a bunch of things that Druckmann didn’t actually say, including sentences with very different meanings from anything contained in the original. This raises the question of how many other parts of the interview are not accurate paraphrases of what the game designer said or are completely made up, although one can assume that if there had been more errors, Druckmann would also have corrected them.

One thing Sony cut out of its response was a moment of humility and kindness. “I have been very lucky to be able to work on my favorite games with incredible collaborators and I am very grateful to them,” said Druckmann. It was an unspoken reminder that Naughty Dog’s games are made by hundreds of people.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.