Naughty Dog boss says it's more important to him what his employees think of The Last of Us Part 2 than the players themselves

The dust around The Last of Us Part II has already slowly settled, but there are still questions about how the Naughty Dog team copes with the fact that the game was not equally well received among all players. Game director Neil Druckmann was asked this in a current interview by Game Informer magazine, and his answer could further anger those who did not like the game.

Druckmann tried to explain why The Last of Us Part II is not a story aimed at making all the players happy, so in the end that explanation turned out to be a bit awkwardly worded. Druckmann thus says between the lines that the Naughty Dog team is so successful because it does the games it wants to do, not necessarily the games the players want to play.

“When we started doing TLOU2 we knew we were doing something that would be controversial for some fans. That wasn’t why we did it, but we did it despite it. Our intention was not to upset or push away the players, we intended to tell us a story that was important to us and that we think has some value, a story that is worth investing time in making. ” - said Druckmann and continued:

"I want to make my team more proud than anyone else. These people are so excited and passionate about what they create. If some percentage of the studio staff didn’t like the game we made, it would have made me unhappy with no going back. And as for people outside the studio, it's a shame that some people didn't like The Last of Us Part II, but I'm behind what we did. "

To this statement, a Game Informer reporter commented: "Naughty Dog's biggest fans seem to be in Naughty Dog," with which Druckmann agreed.

"I'd say we're the biggest fans and the biggest critics of ourselves, and that's what makes us such a good team."

In the same interview, Druckmann referred to allegations of forced overtime in his studio. He says the problem is not as simple as it is portrayed by journalists.

“Everyone has a different definition of what is over time. We realized that no one solution would suit everyone. We say for example that there is no work after a certain hour or no work on Sundays. And someone will always say ‘I can’t work on Fridays because I have to be with the kids, I prefer working on Sundays’, so we have to approach this problem with more solutions. ”