The Last of Us Being Remade By Naughty Dog

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Naughty Dog is working on a remake of their highly acclaimed 2013 title The Last of Us for PS5 with updated graphics and gameplay features.

The remake project was originally conceptualized by Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group, a team in San Diego that’s been around since 2007. For a while now, they’ve served in a support role on many of PlayStation’s big releases, but have recently wanted to step into a lead development position. Studio founder Michael Mumbauer and about 30 other developers from inside and outside the studio started to create their own small development team inside Sony.

Their plan was to “expand upon some of the company’s most successful franchises,” with the first idea being a remake of the original Uncharted. That then shifted to The Last of Us due to the game being more modern, thereby making it easier to remake. After Naughty Dog finished The Last of Us Part II, the remake project was moved over to them, with Visual Arts Service Group assisting in a support role. Following this shift, Mumbauer and others on the team ultimately left the company.

This isn’t the only new project that Naughty Dog is working on though. The company is also apparently working on a new entry in the Uncharted franchise. Originally, Days Gone developer Sony Bend was developing this new game, but they left the project to create their own new game. It’s unknown whether or not this new Uncharted is a spin-off in the vein of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, or a full sequel to Uncharted 4.

A remake of The Last of Us is quite an interesting idea, though one has to wonder how necessary it is. Though the almost eight years old, it still plays very well and looks pretty good. Updating the graphics and gameplay to the more modern standards of The Last of Us Part II is fine, but doing it so soon after its original release and subsequent PS4 remaster feels really unnecessary. Of course we’ll see what comes of this project as time goes on.

(Updated at 12:32 PM ET to include information that Mumbauer and others from his team left the company.)