Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann has claimed that his recent controversial comment about the studio's next game being able to change "mainstream perceptions of gaming" was misrepresented by Sony.
Even though there's not much we officially know about Naughty Dog's long-awaited next game (which is believed to be a new IP and possibly even in the fantasy genre), that hasn't stopped everyone from getting excited about what it's going to be about. That excitement was dampened a little bit earlier this week when the studio's president, Neil Druckmann, took part in an interview with Sony.
During the interview, Druckmann was able to briefly talk a little bit about Naughty Dog's next game, which he said he was eager to see the reaction to since he, allegedly, believed that it could have the power to "redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming". As it turns out, though, that isn't exactly what Druckmann had to say.
Druckmann Says He Was Misquoted About Redefining Modern Gaming
Druckmann's comments were somewhat controversial since, combined with some positive views on AI, they seemed to indicate that Naughty Dog's next game would be aiming to do something that was more than a game, which isn't really what people want to see from the studio. Following the interview, Druckmann took to Twitter to reveal that he was misquoted on the studio's next project.
In a tweet thread, Druckmann highlighted the comment about redefining mainstream perceptions of gaming and revealed that it was "not quite what I said". The thread shows Druckmann's full response to the question, which he says had some of the words, context, and intent removed. You can check out what he actually had to say below.
"I'm also excited to see how the world reacts to it. Because of The Last of Us, and the success of the show, people even outside of gaming are looking at us to see what it is that we put out next. I'm very excited to see what the reaction for this thing will be - and I've already said too much about it. I'll stop there."
As you can see from Druckmann's response, there's nothing in there about redefining the mainstream perception of gaming in there, and he simply says that he's excited to see how the world reacts to it after what happened with The Last of Us. It doesn't change the AI comments that were made unless they were wrong too, but it is a better answer nonetheless.
It's not really clear how Sony got his response so mixed up to the point that he's actually had to clear the record, but it's a strange situation overall. Although Naughty Dog is clearly still aiming to do big things with its next game, it's at least not putting the weight of the whole industry's reputation on its shoulders.
