The Last of Us blew fans away in 2013 by delivering a fresh spin on the survival horror genre that made most PlayStation 3 players tear up within the first 15 minutes. After more game of the year awards than we can count and a beautiful port to the new console generation, it’s no surprise that the community is already chomping at the bit for a sequel to the critically acclaimed Naughty Dog IP. Unfortunately for survival horror fans, any pitches for a followup are being immediately tabled while the team at Naughty Dog prioritizes titles that have already been confirmed…

Rumors of a sequel to The Last of Us have been floating around since 2013, but Naughty Dog hasn’t been able to make the news official yet. During a Reddit AMA late last year, one of the game’s creators, Neil Druckmann, explained that chances of a sequel were roughly 50/50 as far as he could tell. The duo behind The Last of Us (Druckmann and Bruce Straley) were recruited to take the lead on Drake’s next adventure, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Understandably, work on PlayStation’s most popular exclusive franchise is taking priority over any plans to revisit The Last of Us world despite there being a film adaptation in development.

Druckmann mentioned the team’s focus on Uncharted during an interview with Game Informer:

“We have brainstormed sequel ideas for The Last of Us, and we’ve brainstormed ideas for new games, but all of that is put on ice right now while we work on Uncharted 4.”

Druckmann went on to explain that a sequel to The Last of Us is far from a sure thing. The original game did move around 6 million copies (not including the Remastered sales), so there is definitely a market; but the studio is trying to focus on one project at a time. The news is likely disappointing to many fans of Joel and Ellie, but it’s important to keep in mind that not all major developers have the kind of resources that Ubisoft is able to harness to pump out at least one Assassin’s Creed game a year (and often more than that).

Druckmann and Straley explained in the interview that the duo would be fairly upset if Naughty Dog moved forward on a sequel without involving them, so it’s good to know that, for now, the developer is respecting their wishes. In the long run, it is in the best interest of PlayStation consumers for Naughty Dog to take its time on Uncharted and give the game the team’s full attention. If a sequel to the The Last of Us eventually does get the green light, hopefully we can see the same kind of dedication offered to that project, as well.

Do you think that Naughty Dog will eventually release a sequel to The Last of Us? What kind of story would you want to see in a follow up? Let us know in the comments.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End releases in 2015 exclusively for PS4.