Last of Us director Neil Druckmann says he doesn’t think he has many more big games left in him

Uncharted 4 and Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann has said he’s started thinking seriously about when he might stop making blockbuster games.

In an interview with rapper Logic, Naughty Dog’s president said he could envision himself transitioning to something more low-key, which enables him to continue being creative in a less stressful environment while also spending more time with his kids.

Asked if he sees himself making games forever, Druckmann said that recently he’s “really enjoyed” working on other creative projects like HBO’s Last of Us TV show and a Halloween Horror Nights experience at Universal Studios.

“I guess that I don’t see myself doing this forever at this scale,” he said. “It’s just a lot, and it takes a lot out of you. It’s very stressful to manage that many people and multiple studios worldwide.

“So, you were talking about how you’re entering this new phase in your life, where your kids are number one, and I’m in a similar place where my kids are number one. And I know that, especially, my daughter’s now 13, and I feel like life is pulling her away from me. I know that time is limited, so it’s very precious to me, and I don’t want to waste it when they do want to spend time with me, and that’s number one.

“Yeah so, I’m just at a point in my life where it’s like, you start looking at, ‘what’s the end game here? When is it time to call it?’

Druckmann said he’s a big Quentin Tarantino fan, and he’s keen to find out if the director sticks to his public comments about making no more than 10 films. He thinks the Pulp Fiction director will, but that he’ll end up making TV shows or doing something else creative.

“So, I could see myself transitioning to something that’s like more low-key, and lower stressed, that still allows me to have this creative outlet,” Druckmann said. “But you know, I’ve started thinking about how many more of these games do I have in me, and it’s not that many.”

Druckmann went on to say that everything changed following the release of 2009’s Uncharted 2, and that he’s been a victim of his own success.

“Uncharted 2 was the most fun I had making any of the games I’ve worked on because Uncharted 1, a lot of people loved it, but it wasn’t this huge success. It was successful enough again that we made Sony happy, we made enough money. But with Uncharted 2 we felt like we had something really special, like we all knew it, and we knew we were flying in under the radar, and no one was going to expect what we were about to deliver.

“And I remember we’d spend late nights playing the multiplayer as well, and there was just this camaraderie and the stress wasn’t there, and afterwards everything has been incredibly stressful, after Uncharted 2, because now you’re no longer flying under the radar, now everybody is expecting something to be great.

“And you have to think, ‘how do we make it great and how do we do it in a way that doesn’t feel like we’re just repeating ourselves?’ So you always have to make it great and new, which is really, really hard.”

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