The Last of Us director reveals discrepancies in comments from recent Sony interview

Naughty Dog President Neil Druckmann has responded to comments published in an interview between him and Sony, showing how his answer was edited down to the point where it misquotes him.

Fans and developers alike have been discussing the recent Sony-published interview in which Druckmann discusses the future of game development. The biggest point of contention is Druckmann’s view on the use of AI, which he appears to be excited about, despite industry-wide backlash to its use and the layoffs of thousands of game developers. However, Druckmann has now said that the interview, in at least one answer, doesn’t accurately reflect his comments.

Neil Druckmann shows Sony interview misquoted his thoughts on gaming’s future

In a post on Twitter/X, Druckmann highlights one specific part of one of his answers from the original interview and says, “This is not quite what I said.”

Druckmann does share his original, unedited response, which is much longer and filled with rambling thoughts.

Editing responses in an interview is standard journalistic practice that every outlet does. The intent is to edit for clarity so that the point remains the same but to remove any confusing or extraneous language that can come with answering a question on the fly during an interview.

The edits appear to have gone too far here, though. Druckmann didn’t actually say he believes Naughty Dog’s new game “could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming.” In his original response, it’s clear his dream is for video games to appeal to a much wider audience, as they do today compared to 20 or 30 years ago.

Using The Last of Us and Fallout as an example, he explains how he wants to see a world where more games spread into other mediums like TV, movies, and more so that when someone who doesn’t play games sees them and discovers they’re based on a game, they seek that game out to play it.

Druckmann answers the main question right at the start of this lengthy response, saying, “Well, I’ve been lucky, in that I’ve already had that. I got the chance to make several of my dream projects.” His dream for the future may well be the new project he’s currently working on at Naughty Dog, but he doesn’t give many details outside of how excited about it he is.

Initially, I didn’t think this post was much of a response because it doesn’t address the main topic fans and developers have been discussing regarding this interview: AI. Druckmann’s comments about AI prompted some very strong opinions online.

However, with this response now out there, we should also keep an open mind about those comments. While Druckmann clearly made his excitement about AI clear, the exact wording, especially if it’s another rambling answer, could make all the difference as to what he was actually trying to say.