The Last of Us Part II has officially become one of Sony’s biggest launches and fastest-selling exclusive to date but director Neil Druckmann has this to say about the game’s sales: “I don’t care.”
In a video interview with Joel actor, Troy Baker, Druckmann said that it’s not developers’ jobs to maximize sales and profits, and noted that the development team went ahead with Part II‘s controversial plot despite anticipating mixed responses. Druckmann specifically referred to fans who often use sales numbers as some kind of criticism or retort directed at developers.
“The game is selling well, and I don’t care,” Druckmann told Baker. “Just to talk about sales for a second: I just want to sell enough so we can do it again, so Sony will keep trusting us and giving us the creative freedom to do whatever we need to do. Anything beyond that is just gravy.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Druckmann touched upon the recent industry-wide debate surrounding video game length, and addressed theories about developers padding games out just to please marketing departments and publishers.
“In my 16-year career at Naughty Dog, marketing has never – not once – given us a creative note to say ‘this should be in the game’ or ‘the game should be this long’ or ‘this short’ or ‘have this feature,'” said Druckmann. “Not once in my entire 16-year career has that happened. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, it just has never happened to us.”
Druckmann acknowledged that Part II might have been a little too long for some players but reiterated that its length was entirely up to Naughty Dog.
[Source: Troy Baker (YouTube) via GameSpot, VGC]
