A month after Naughty Dog scrapped its The Last Of Us multiplayer project, a keen-eyed fan found evidence that possibly confirms the suspicions of a new IP in the works.
That evidence comes in the form of the LinkedIn bio of a creative designer/story artist for Naughty Dog and was pointed out by a Redditor on Jan. 15. The artist in question is Colin Lorimer, and according to his bio, he has been with Naughty Dog since 2021 and worked on the HBO adaption of The Last of Us as well as the late multiplayer project, which would have been called The Last of Us: Factions.
What stands out from Lorimer’s bio is what comes directly after the mention of Factions, which is the statement that he is “currently helping develop [Naughty Dog’s] latest IP.” Just below the bio, Lorimer’s work experience section shows work on two projects with Naughty Dog: TLOU: Factions and an “Untitled Project.”
While there’s no way of knowing when this bio was written, context clues make it clear Lorimer’s experience alludes to a Naughty Dog project that doesn’t have a publicly announced name yet, and the specific mention of a “latest IP” strongly suggests an original title as opposed to a sequel. It’s possible “latest IP” is referring to The Last of Us, which is technically Naughty Dog’s latest despite being a decade old, but this isn’t the only hint we’ve gotten that suggests a new IP.
In the same update that announced the scrapping of TLOU: Factions, it is also stated Naughty Dog is currently working on more than one “ambitious, brand new” single-player game. The phrasing automatically eliminates any possibility of another remaster, and using “brand new” implies a completely new IP.
In fact, as is mentioned in the post in which Lorimer’s LinkedIn bio was brought forward, many mistakenly remembered this update as a confirmation of a new Naughty Dog world in the works. Perhaps the most telling part of the update is in the specification of multiple new games being in the works, which leaves room for a new IP, even if one of these games is The Last of Us Part 3.
On the topic of TLOU3, Jeffrey Pierce (who voices Tommy) said in December that he hadn’t received a script for a third game and knows nothing about it (though he also said he wouldn’t be able to talk about it even if he did). It’s still too early to know with certainty what project Lorimer’s LinkedIn is referring to, but there does seem to be a healthy amount of evidence for a whole new world.
