Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann seems desperate to talk about his team’s next big project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
In an interview with Variety, where he also chats about his decision to step back from The Last of Us television show and focus on games, he said the upcoming sci-fi exclusive is the “most ambitious” his studio’s ever made.
He teased:
“What can I say and not say? I can tell you we’re in the thick of it. We’re making it, we’re playing it. We’re firing on all cylinders. I’ve said this before, but I really mean it, I’m really feeling it right now: It’s the most ambitious game we’ve ever made. It’s the most expansive game we’ve ever made, maybe the most expensive, by the time we finish it.”
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube166k
Druckmann also confirmed that long-time collaborator Troy Baker is in the game, although he didn’t elaborate on his role.
However, he did confirm that Baker was part of Tati Gabrielle’s audition, which helped her to land the lead role of Jordan A. Mun.
He explained:
“I pitched her the story as it was at the time, and we kind of walked through it beginning, middle, end and explained what her role would be. I asked her if she’d be willing to audition, and she was. We had her on stage, and I asked Troy to come in and read with her, so she read against Troy Baker. We were just very confident that is our Jordan A. Mun.”
Druckmann also touched on the challenges of writing a sci-fi story, compared to something a little more grounded like The Last of Us, where the rules of the universe are a little more defined.
He noted:
“Here, we have to not only come up with the universe and what are the rules of the universe? What’s this history? Because we’re jumping 2,000 years in an alternate future. We also have to figure out the lore of this planet, Sempiria, that Jordan, our hero, ends up on and has to work to escape from.”
So, when will we see more of the game? Druckmann wouldn’t say:
“As far as when we’re going to show stuff, I’m so antsy to show it and talk about it because the trailer that we showed doesn’t even scratch the surface of what this game actually is. But announcing a game like this, especially when it’s new IP, especially when it’s coming out of Naughty Dog, you’ve got to coordinate with marketing, with PR, with a bunch of people. So, it’d be foolish for me to say when we’re gonna show something right now.”
If it’s true Sony is set to re-reveal Marvel’s Wolverine imminently, we reckon it’ll keep quiet about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet for the time being.
The platform holder has shifted towards a strategy where it only focuses on a handful of upcoming titles at a time, and we know Housemarque’s Saros is due a gameplay re-reveal later this year as well.
That means it’s got more than enough upcoming content to talk about for the foreseeable future, and then it can begin to peel back the curtains on Intergalactic once it’s almost ready to release.