The Last of Us developer slams leaks, releases new Part 1 trailer
Naughty Dog bites back.
Naughty Dog has acknowledged the recent wave of The Last of Us Part 1 leaks, and branded them "disheartening and frustrating" to developers.
A series of leaks have spilled online this week, including gameplay footage, screenshots, plus details of the game's accessibility features and controller layout.
Today, Naughty Dog has now also debuted its own breakdown of what we can expect to see when the game releases for PlayStation 5, which you can watch below.
"Leaks really suck," wrote Naughty Dog vice president Arne Meyer. "Esp when we're right on the cusp of an asset drop. It's disheartening and frustrating to teams who have put their hearts making awesome things for our fans."
This was echoed by the studio's senior editor Samuel Prince.
"[Leaks are] extremely hurtful to the devs who work tirelessly to bring you these wonderful games," Prince said, highlighting that The Last of Us Part 1's gameplay mechanics have been completely rebuilt.
"Public-facing assets take a long time to create, revise, approve, localise, clear legal, ESRB, etc. Be kind!"
Meanwhile, Druckmann has also had his say, albeit in a less direct fashion. When asked to see the game's trophy list, co-president Neil Druckmann replied, "I'm sure it'll leak in a minute."
While we will never know if we would have received this latest trailer today had it not been for the leaks, trailers such as this clearly take some time to put together and would have been in the offing anyway.
Today's trailer sees Druckmann, game director Matthew Gallant and creative director Shaun Escayg host a 10-minute deep dive into The Last of Us Part 1. They cover many different angles, detailing how haptic feedback will work in game (including how it will react to quieter moments in the narrative such as when Joel and Ellie come across the giraffe) to the character's new facial nuances and the game's more sophisticated AI tech.
We also get an official look at some of The Last of Us Part 1's accessibility options, which includes an audio description setting - apparently a first for a game on PlayStation. "We've really tried to push the frontier of accessibility on this game," states Gallant.
Meanwhile, for a full breakdown of what you can expect from each edition of The Last of Us Part 1, you can check out our coverage here.