The Last of Us Part 2 Dev Explains How Friendly Competition With Other Sony Studios Helps Them Improve

Sony’s done an excellent job of cultivating an incredible first party lineup in recent years, with their studios putting out one excellent game after another this generation, from Uncharted to God of War to Horizon: Zero Dawn to Spider-Man, and with many, many more still to come. And that web of extremely talented development teams within the larger Sony framework has clearly done wonders, a lot of which is down to their dynamics with each other as well. That, in fact, is something that Naughty Dog’s Art Director John Sweeney and Director of Communications Arne Meyer explain as well.

While speaking in the latest weekly issue of Famitsu (via Twinfinite), the duo explained that Sony’s first party studios are always locked in a spirit of friendly competition with each other, as they try to make a game that learns from those made by others, and come out as a better experience as a result. Meyer cited examples such as God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn, mentioning them both as games that have encouraged himself to work to make The Last of Us Part 2 an even better game. Sweeney echoed his statements, saying that excellent titles put out by fellow Sony studios encourage all the others to do work that is just as good, if not better.

Meanwhile, the two also explained that rather than a rivalry, the studios share a cooperative relationship in spite of competition, so that if ever one of them achieves something incredible with their own games, they always remain open to letting other Sony studios know just how they managed to achieve what they did- all of which is to say that collaboratively, they end up making games that are significantly better.

In Sony’s current roster of exclusives, the likes of The Last of Us Part 2, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding are all due out for the PS4. Though we don’t have a release date for any of them, with the exception of Days Gone, some rumours have pegged The Last of Us Part 2 for a release in 2019. Read more on that through here.