The Last of Us Developers were Convinced the Game would Fail

Now here’s an interesting lil’ tidbit. 

Recently, co-directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann along with lead designer Anthony Newman of the now famous The Last of Us were speaking with Wil Wheaton in an interview, and while the interview in full is certainly worth a listen, one bit of information in particular is worth pointing out: apparently, back when The Last of Us was being made, the company and developers alike were utterly convinced it would tank.
 

"We thought we were going to ruin the name and image [of Naughty Dog] that's been so heartily built for years with blood, sweat, and tears. We thought we were ruining Naughty Dog's image… A big part of it was on the mechanical side; I thought, 'We'll be lucky to scrape by with an 85 Metacritic.' Just because it wasn't gelling. It wasn't coming together. So it was really a set of really lucky breaks in terms of gameplay decisions we made that really made everything fall into place and turned it into a fun game."

This is interesting, because you’ll know if you’ve played the game or even kind of heard of it that the game is universally considered the one of the, if not the, best game ever released for the PlayStation 3. Between the tight gameplay, the tense action beats, and the unforgettable characters, plots, and a gut-punch ending, it’s widely seen as one of the pinnacles of our medium and a modern classic.

Now it’s one thing to have the shakes before a big release, that’s only human: but to think that it would ruin your image? Damn, son, that from the company who shamelessly released… um…

…actually they haven’t ever really released a bad game, have they? Huh. Well, I guess their jitters are better earned, now.

Regardless, the rest of the interview is below, if you’re interested to see the rest of it.