The Last Of Us Director Leaves Naughty Dog For Good

Naughty Dog is a studio that is known for some of the most ground-breaking and narrative-driven video games in the business. One of the people who were responsible for this reputation is Bruce Straley, who co-directed titles such as The Last Of Us and Uncharted 4. Now, it’s been revealed that Straley is leaving Naughty Dog for good after taking a year off from work.

Straley himself made the announcement via a blog post on Naughty Dog’s website, explaining exactly why he is leaving the studio he has been a part of for 18 years. It’s quite apparent that the workload he had to deal with during the development cycle of Uncharted 4 is what finally drove him into making this decision.

“This has been the hardest decision of my career. Naughty Dog is home. The Kennel is family. I’ve learned and grown so much from working with this incredible team. But after heading up three extremely demanding projects, and taking some extended time away from the office, I found my energy focusing in other directions, and I slowly realized this was the signal that it’s time to move on.”

As Kotaku reports, Straley has been on an extended sabbatical following the launch of the fourth game in the Uncharted series. The director then made comments in a book titled Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, in which he reveals what developing the game involved. Apparently, it was so demanding that the director had to rent a second apartment just to be closer to work as the title was getting close to release.

In light of this revelation and the news back in December that Straley would not be part of the development for The Last Of Us 2, this announcement really isn’t at all that surprising. The gaming figure has revealed no plans with regards to future projects or if he is still going to continue making video games in the future.