Naughty Dog “moves on” from Uncharted, open to The Last of Us Part 3 if it has a “compelling story”.

Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann has stated that the Uncharted studio is “moving on,” and it could do the same with The Last of Us if it doesn’t have a “compelling” story for Part 3.

In conversation with BuzzFeed, the developer admitted that fans are excited to learn more about the prospect of a third story in its The Last of Us series. However, Druckmann emphasized that something that is successful does not necessarily need a sequel.

Druckmann said Naughty Dog is in a “very privileged position” at Sony.[supporting the studio] to follow every step of the way [its] Passions,” meaning it felt no pressure to make a sequel.

Druckman explained, “For us, Uncharted has been insanely successful – Uncharted 4 has been one of our best-selling games – and we can put the finishing touches to this story and say we’re done. We continue.”

It’s a little unclear here whether Druckmann means there won’t be any more Uncharted games at all, or whether he’s referring to Nathan Drake’s storyline, which ended in A Thief’s End. After all, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was a standalone expansion after A Thief’s End and followed the story of Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross as they searched for Ganesh’s tusk. Drake was only mentioned in a passing comment.

Also, Druckmann may have meant that Naughty Dog as a studio is done with the Uncharted series, meaning others may pick it up later.

If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be the first time a studio other than Naughty Dog has developed an Uncharted game, with Bend Studio developing spin-offs Fight for Fortune (a digital card game) and Golden Abyss for the PlayStation Vita.

Going back to the BuzzFeed interview and The Last of Us, Druckmann reiterated that Naughty Dog is willing to develop Part 3, but only if “[the team] can dream up a compelling story that contains that universal message and statement of love,” something it did with parts 1 and 2.

“With The Last of Us, it’s up to us whether we want to continue it or not… If we don’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the ending,” Druckmann said of the finished edit.

While Part 3 is in the air for now, Naughty Dog is currently working on the upcoming multiplayer release of The Last of Us. So far we’ve only seen concept art for this game, but the developer has assured us that we’ll hear more about its “ambitious” release “later this year”.