The Last of Us director Bruce Straley now says AAA games are “boring”

Bruce Straley, who directed Uncharted and The Last of Us, has taken aim at AAA development, arguing that a lot of big-budget games have turned “boring” because the system has become too cautious to leave real space for new ideas. In his view, the problem isn’t a lack of talent. It’s that nobody wants to gamble when projects stretch to five years and 2026 budgets land anywhere from $150 million to well over $300 million. Call of Duty, once marketing and post-launch support are included, gets close to $700 million. At that scale, publishers fall back on formulas.

He pointed to God of War Laufey as an example. Straley called its visuals and tech “mindblowing,” but said the gameplay doesn’t do much for him. He wasn’t taking a shot at one studio or one specific project so much as the broader model behind them. There’s some irony there, since he helped build that model with Uncharted and The Last of Us. He left Naughty Dog in 2017 after Uncharted 4, citing burnout, and still received a credit on The Last of Us Part 2, though what he actually did on that game remains unclear.

Now he runs the much smaller Wildflower Interactive. Its Coven of the Chicken Foot, revealed at The Game Awards 2025, looks like a pretty clear break from the old template and still doesn’t have a release date. Ken Levine and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah have said similar things, fans are split between polish and familiarity, and neither Sony nor Santa Monica Studio has responded.

Author: Emmanuel Bosque

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