‘The Last of Us’ Co-Director Disapproves of Snub at HBO Series

Bruce Straley hasn’t worked for Naughty Dog for six years, but he’s the director of the original PlayStation 3 version of the game. Last of us dissatisfied with not being credited for the HBO adaptation, started airing this week.

In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Straley’s relationships with Naughty Dog and Sony are described as “strained”. He told the publication that his absence from the series, despite his leadership role in producing the source material, led him to consider unionization efforts in the games industry as a means of securing proper compensation and credits for creative work.

“The argument in favor of the unification is that someone who was involved in the co-creation of this world and these characters does not get credit or a dime for the work they put into it,” Straley said. “Maybe we need trade unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators.”

Straley is uncredited for the HBO show, although his contributions to the original game were noted in The Last of Us Part I remake, which was launched on the PlayStation 5, through a special screen. It was like when Uncharted 4: A Thief’s WayThe credits credit former series director Amy Hennig’s contributions to the franchise, despite her leaving the studio during development of this game.

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In the years since leaving Naughty Dog, Straley founded a new studio called Interactive wild flowerwho is working on her first game.

Video game lending has become a burning issue of late as companies find more and more ways to get around including people’s names in the credits of projects they’ve worked on. Earlier this month it became known that several developers working on Callisto Protocol we dropped from game credits despite their contributions.

Talk of unionizing is becoming more common in the video game industry as workers become more public about their disgusting working conditions for AAA companies like Activision Blizzard. Naughty Dog was also an item critical allegations over the years. Studio co-president Neil Druckmann recently stated that the studio is looking into ways to address these issues, such as don’t announce games so early how it was The Last of Us Part 2 and Uncharted 4 to create smarter development schedules.