Sony Pulls Inaccurate Interview with Naughty Dog Boss Neil Druckmann

Neil Druckmann's in-house Sony interview is gone.

By Tanner Dedmon

Sony has removed an interview with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann from its site after it was claimed that the interview misrepresented Druckmann's quotes about the studio's ambitions and other topics. The developer of The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part 2, and more was quoted by Sony as saying that the studio's next game could "redefine" the mainstream perceptions of gaming, but the only problem was the he never actually said those words. Sony has since issued an apology after removing the interview entirely.

The interview in question was not published on the PlayStation Blog like many PlayStation communications are but was rather housed on the Sony site as part of the Creative Entertainment Vision series Sony's been working on recently. In that interview, Druckmann's "quote" about Naughty Dog's next project which was dragged across social media after it was made public followed statements about Max's The Last of Us show and how different mediums open the door for more gaming experiences.

"The show's success has spotlighted gaming, illustrating the rich, immersive experiences it offers," read the quote attributed to Druckmann in a cached version of the interview. "This visibility excites me not only for our current project but for the broader potential of gaming to captivate a global audience. I'm eager to see how this new game resonates, especially following the success of The Last of Us, as it could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming."

His alleged quote was interpreted as a desire to legitimize gaming or make it "mainstream" which many thought was contradictory to the fact that The Last of Us and more recently Fallout have enjoyed tremendous success with even non-gaming audiences. Shortly afterwards, Druckmann published his own transcript from the interview wherein it was shown he didn't say anything about redefining perceptions and was instead quite reserved yet excited for what Naughty Dog has planned next much like we see from many talks about in-development games that are still far away.

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In what appears to be the conclusion to this interview saga, Sony issued the following statement that's found where the interview once was.

"In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don't represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects)," Sony said. "We apologize to Neil for misrepresenting his words and for any negative impact this interview might have caused him and his team. In coordination with Naughty Dog and SIE, we have removed the interview."

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