Seven years after the launch of the original game and Naughty Dog has finally released The Last of Us 2 to the masses. While the game hasn't been without its controversies, The Last of Us 2 has earned near-universal acclaim from critics and has been a massive sales success so far. Naughty Dog has proven itself to be one of the top video game studios in the world, and all eyes will be on its next project.
With Sony set to launch the PS5 this holiday season, Naughty Dog's next game will almost certainly be an exclusive for the next-generation console. However, it remains to be seen exactly what the game will be. It will likely be years before Naughty Dog's first PS5 game is revealed, but in the meantime, there are five distinct options that seem to be the most likely possibilities.
Here are the five most likely titles that will be Naughty Dog's next game after The Last of Us 2.
Jak 4
When Naughty Dog transitioned from PS2 to PS3, many expected the studio to continue its award-winning Jak and Daxter franchise on the new console. Naughty Dog actually started work on Jak 4 for PS3, but the game eventually morphed into Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Naughty Dog hasn't produced a new Jak and Daxter game since 2005's Jak X: Combat Racing, and so many fans are eager to see the studio return to the beloved platforming franchise.
Jak 4 would be a nice change of pace from the ultra-violent Last of Us 2, and could give Naughty Dog fans a breather between Last of Us and Uncharted installments. The Jak and Daxter franchise has been dormant for so long that Jak 4 would also likely generate significant buzz within the industry, and it would be great to see how the series' gameplay would translate to the PlayStation 5 technology. Naughty Dog continues to leave Jak and Daxter easter eggs in its games, so it too seems to be keeping the series in mind.
New IP
While it's far more likely that Naughty Dog's next game will be a continuation of one of its existing franchises, it also wouldn't be out of character for the studio to produce a brand new, original IP instead. Naughty Dog has consistently made successful new IPs throughout its existence, from Crash Bandicoot to The Last of Us, and so it has a proven track record in creating compelling, brand new worlds. A new Naughty Dog IP could be literally anything so to guess as to what it may entail would be a pointless endeavor, but one thing is for certain, and that is it would have ground-breaking graphics backing it up.
The Last of Us 2 Expansion
Naughty Dog expanded on the world of the original Last of Us with the Left Behind expansion, which further explored Ellie's backstory. It also created a new, smaller-scale Uncharted adventure with the standalone expansion for Uncharted 4, The Lost Legacy, and so it stands to reason that it could do something similar with The Last of Us 2. Perhaps Naughty Dog will release a Last of Us 2 expansion that shows what some of the other characters were up to during the events of the game, or maybe it will be a prequel that fills in some of the gaps. If rumors of The Last of Us 2 PS5 port are true, then bundling it with an expansion could very well be enough to convince some players to double-dip on the next-gen version of the game.
The Last of Us 3
The Last of Us 2 has earned near-universal acclaim from critics and is a massive sales success, meaning that The Last of Us 3 is inevitable. Without getting into spoilers, The Last of Us 2 ending definitely left a lot of different directions the story could go next, and many fans would love to revisit the franchise's post-apocalyptic world on PS5 as soon as possible. The Last of Us 2 pushes the PS4's visuals to its limits, so it would be incredible to see The Last of Us 3 powered by the PlayStation 5's impressive hardware.
Uncharted 5
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was a fitting conclusion to Nathan Drake's story, but like The Last of Us, Uncharted just makes too much money to stay dormant forever. A fifth Uncharted game is likely going to happen at some point, though it remains to be seen if it will be Naughty Dog's next project. As is the case with The Last of Us, seeing Uncharted on PS5 would be worth it for the visuals alone, and there are many different ways Naughty Dog could approach the story. However, it may want to give the Uncharted 4 ending a little more time to breathe, so it would be somewhat surprising for Naughty Dog to pursue a new Uncharted next.
Whatever Naughty Dog makes next, it will likely come with a thrilling story, cutting-edge graphics, and take advantage of the PS5's unique DualSense controller and other hardware capabilities. New Naughty Dog games come out every few years or so, so fans should expect to play the studio's first PS5 game somewhere around 2022 or 2023, and for a reveal to come about a year before then.
The Last of Us 2 is out now, exclusively for PS4.