Bruce Straley, the sport director behind The Last of Us and numerous Uncharted video games, finds fashionable AAA video games to be “boring.”
As a part of an Edge magazine story concerning the state of the video games business, Straley spoke concerning the AAA panorama. He famous that he finds the large blockbuster titles to be “boring,” partially due to the shortage of risk-taking. Straley pointed to God of Warfare Laufey for instance of a recreation that clearly takes a number of effort and talent to realize, however might not innovate in notable methods.
“God of Warfare Laufey, I take a look at that recreation, and each pixel is mindblowing,” he mentioned. “The quantity of labor and talent that’s gone into each single body… I’ve made these sorts of video games, and I’m nonetheless blown away. However once I really take a look at what you’re doing within the recreation? I’m not excited. And that’s nothing towards the God of Warfare workforce. Simply, throughout the board in triple-A, it looks like there’s no alternative to inject recent, revolutionary concepts.”
The irony, as many individuals on the web will certainly level out, is that Straley often is the supply of inspiration for lots of recent AAA video games. Uncharted and The Final of Us are the blueprint for the hyper-cinematic, third-person motion video games which can be popping out in droves nowadays. That is particularly the case for PlayStation and God of Warfare. The 2018 smooth reboot of God of Warfare was jokingly criticized by avid gamers for being a Kratos-led model of The Final of Us.
Straley left Naughty Canine in 2017, following the discharge of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s Finish. The sport director obtained particular thanks within the credit of The Final of Us Half 2, but it surely’s unclear how a lot he contributed to the ultimate recreation, because it went by means of practically 4 years of growth with out him. Straley left the corporate after experiencing in depth burnout from the intensive AAA growth course of.
Now, Straley is engaged on smaller video games at his personal studio, Wildflower Interactive. His first recreation beneath Wildflower was introduced on the 2025 Recreation Awards Coven of the Chicken Foot and seems to be a giant depature from his work at Naughty Canine. It has no launch date for the time being.
Cade Onder
Freelance Author
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s information workforce. He covers all issues leisure, together with gaming, movie, and extra. You could find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.