Is *The Last of Us 3* Really Happening? Naughty Dog Juggling Three Projects Has Me Worried First

A few days ago, while I was clearing icons on an open-world map, I casually took another look through industry leaks. It felt like spotting an unmarked path on Google Maps—the more I looked, the more I felt this could be a big deal. Recently, a post from leaker DanielRPK has once again turned players’ attention back to Naughty Dog’s new projects. Based on the current rumors, this flagship Sony first-party studio may be pushing forward with three heavyweight titles at the same time.

Of these three projects, the one that has already been officially revealed is the brand-new IP Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet—that one is out in the open. On another front, leaker Alir previously mentioned that a new Uncharted game could be Naughty Dog’s second project currently in development. But if you look a little further, you’ll find that the third line is what has really set the community ablaze—the article claims that the studio’s secretly developed third game appears to be the long-awaited The Last of Us Part III.

The reason this rumor spread so quickly is not just because the subject itself is huge, but also because DanielRPK later reposted and interacted with it. Many insiders believe that this kind of move can be seen as a form of indirect endorsement, but at the end of the day, it is still leak-level information, not official confirmation. In other words, the only solid conclusion for now is this: if all these claims are true, Naughty Dog will be entering the very rare state of developing on “three fronts in parallel.”

But beyond the map, what truly makes me uneasy is not the number of projects, but their level of polish. What has made Naughty Dog so valuable over the years has never been just visuals and cinematic presentation, but narrative density, character building, and overall refinement. The troubled development of The Last of Us multiplayer project already showed that high-end productions do not always make it smoothly to the finish line; if Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a new Uncharted, and The Last of Us Part III are all stacked together now, then both production capacity and creative stability will be pushed to the limit.

From an industry trend perspective, this also aligns with Sony’s first-party strategy in recent years of focusing on prestige, high-quality productions. The platform wants its top studios to keep delivering titles that can carry the banner, and Naughty Dog will naturally end up bearing heavier expectations. But the problem is that AAA development does not become richer just by placing a few more icons on the map. The real challenge is making every area memorable in its own way; otherwise, the larger the scale, the easier it is for things to feel hollow and repetitive.

If you ask me what worries me most, I would put my vote on “declining quality,” and that quality is not just about technology, but also script pacing and character arcs. For a team at Naughty Dog’s level, players are not satisfied with a project list that looks like a giant map. What people want is to see new terrain even after crossing the mountain. If all three projects really do succeed, then of course it would be a major gamble won for Sony’s lineup; but before the studio officially shows its hand, I would rather treat this as a very tempting treasure map—stay excited, but keep a little skepticism in reserve.