The Last of Us co-director calls for unionisation after not getting HBO credit
The co-director of the original The Last of Us video game has advocated for unionization in the games industry, after he was not credited in the recent HBO adaptation.
Bruce Straley, who co-directed the 2013 game alongside creative director Neil Druckmann, left Naughty Dog shortly after the release of 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which he also directed.
As co-director, Straley is credited for much of The Last of Us’s violent and tense tone, which is said to have been inspired by a trip to watch the movie No Country for Old Men, and characters including survivalist Bill.
An extensive Reddit thread from last year details many of Straley and Druckmann’s public comments regarding how their responsibilities were split for The Last of Us, and paints a picture of a collaborative relationship between the pair.
Speaking to the LA Times in a recent interview, Straley said that the lack of credit in the HBO series had made him think more about workers’ rights in the video game space.
“It’s an argument for unionization that someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn’t getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it,” he said. “Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators.”
Druckmann, who is an exec producer on the HBO show, is prominently credited in the show’s opening sequence as the writer of the game. Seven Naughty Dog developers are also credited at the end of the show for consultation.
HBO and Sony reportedly declined to comment on the record.
Straley announced his return to game development last year with a new studio called Wildflower Interactive. In the LA Times interview, his relationship with Naughty Dog is described as “strained”.
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