Co-director The Last Of Us dissatisfied with HBO show credits Snub
Bruce Straley hasn’t been with Naughty Dog for six years, but the game director behind the original PlayStation 3 version of The last of us isn’t happy about his lack of credit in the HBO adaptation that started broadcasting this week.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Straley’s relationship with Naughty Dog and Sony has been described as “strained”. He told the outlet that despite his directing role in creating the source material, he is not credited on the show, which makes him think about union efforts within the games industry as a means of ensuring proper compensation and credit for creative works.
“It’s an argument for unionization that someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters doesn’t get credit or a dime for the work they put into it,” Straley said. “Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to protect creators.”
Straley is not credited in the credits of the HBO show, though his contribution to the original game was credited in the The Last of Us Part I redo, launched on PlayStation 5, through a dedicated screen. That was similar to then Uncharted 4: The end of a thiefThe credits credited former series director Amy Hennig’s contributions to the franchise, despite her leaving the studio during that game’s development.
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In the years following his departure from Naughty Dog, Straley founded a new studio called Wildflower interactivewho is working on his first game.
Credit in video games has become a hot-button issue lately, as companies find more and more ways to get around putting people’s names in the credits of projects they’ve worked on. Earlier this month, it came to light that several developers were at work The Callisto Protocol goods omitted from the game’s credits despite their contributions.
Talks about unionization are becoming more widespread in the video game industry as workers go public with the horrific working conditions at AAA companies like Activision Blizzard. Naughty Dog has also been the subject of sharp accusations over the years. Studio co-chair Neil Druckmann recently said the studio is looking at ways to alleviate these issues, such as don’t announce games so early as it did The Last of Us Part II and Uncharted 4 to create more reasonable development schedules.
