Neil Druckmann responds to controversial trailer for The Last of Us 2

In October, we got our first look in nearly a year at highly anticipated Naughty Dog’s emotional survival horror game, The Last of Us 2. The trailer was a scene plucked straight from the game and it featured all-new female characters in a disturbing and violent situation. The violence was brutal and made many viewers uncomfortable and led to a lot of controversy for both the game and marketing in general.

Some believed some sort of warning should’ve been put ahead of the trailer so viewers could look away from the disturbing violence and some believed it just doesn’t need to be shown at all. With that said, The Last of Us 2 game director Neil Druckmann responded to the controversy in a new episode of the AIAS Game Maker’s podcast by saying they knew it would be controversial and that they wanted to show something different and new for the game without giving anything away.

“Some people, as we expected, were disturbed by what they saw in the scene and it led to some interesting conversations about what kind of violence is ok in a video game. What kind of violence is ok in what is perceived as a marketing piece? Should a marketing piece need to convey every facet of the game?” he said. “There’s a marketing campaign, each piece can’t possibly tell you everything about the game, only the game can tell you everything about the game. Every time we put something out there, it shows you a different facet of what the final experience is going to be like and I think some people because they were shaken or disturbed wanted more context within this piece alone. I think that’s putting too much weight or responsibility on any one tiny sliver of the game.”

He added that they really like starting conversations about tackling darker, more mature topics in entertainment.

“We really enjoy the conversations about how do you tackle more mature, more difficult subject matter in the game and I think that’s setting up the kind of conversations we’re going to see once the game finally comes out.”

The Last of Us 2 has no release date but is expected to launch in the next year or two on PlayStation 4.