Over the last decade or so, PlayStation has been gradually building its own little private army of first-party, single-player IPs, andThe Last of Uswas one of the very first in this new wave of Sony exclusives. But just a few years afterThe Last of Us, theHorizonfranchise reared its head, quickly becoming one ofPlayStation’s most successful series, even despite its constant bad luck when it comes to release windows. In this modern age, where there’s success, there’s a deep need to replicate it as much as possible, and that’s exactly what PlayStation plans on doing.
Guerrilla Games' studio director Jan-Bart van Beek used a Develop: Brighton talk a few weeks ago toconfirm the existence of multipleHorizonfranchise projectsthat are currently in the works. These include the currently confirmedHorizonmultiplayer game, and the NetflixHorizonshow, though from the way Beek was speaking, it sounded like the studio had at least a few more plans in the pipeline. But while theHorizonfranchise might have a slew of projects on the way,The Last of Uscould have even more in development right now.
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Why The Last of Us Could Have More Projects in the Pipeline Than Horizon
In terms of pure sales numbers,The Last of Usis the more successful franchise out of itself andHorizon. As of January 2023,The Last of Ushad sold a total of 37 million copies across the entire franchise, including its sequel and theLast of Us Part 1remake. As of May 2023,Horizonhad sold 32.7 million copies across its own franchise. While these numbers are impressive regardless, and they are fairly close, they do still show thatThe Last of Usis technically more successful thanHorizon, though admittedly not by much, especially withThe Last of Ushaving a four-year head start.
There’s one big factor that cementsThe Last of Usas the more successful franchise of the two, and that’s the recent HBO live-action adaptation. HBO’sThe Last of Ushas been a monumental hit for the franchise, Naughty Dog, and Sony, earning critical acclaim across the board and bringing the series to an exponentially wider audience. Soon afterHBO’sLast of Usshowbegan to air, it was reported that sales ofThe Last of Us Part 1went up by 238%, which is incredibly impressive considering the game first launched back in September 2022, months before HBO’s show started to air.
Right now,The Last of Usis arguably PlayStation’s hottest IP, and it only makes sense that Sony would now be desperately trying to flood the market with as muchLast of Uscontent as possible, likely meaning that there are even moreLast of Usprojects in the works than there areHorizonprojects. Currently, fans have had confirmation that twoLast of Usprojects are currently in the works. The first of these istheLast of UsMultiplayerspinoffwas first revealed a year ago, but has since gone dark, with reports claiming that Bungie has been tasked with assisting development. The second confirmed project is the second season of HBO’sThe Last of Us, which itself is facing setbacks due to the ongoing writers' and actors' strikes.
Aside from those two currently confirmed projects,The Last of Ushas also received a number of new leaks recently. The leaks seem to point tothe existence of aLast of Us Part 3, which will allegedly follow a new group of survivors fighting for control of an old Victorian manor house on the outskirts of a dilapidated city. Even if these leaks don’t turn out to be true, it’s a safe bet to assume that aLast of Us Part 3will happen at some point, probably along with a handful of spinoffs as well to fully capitalize on the franchise’s ongoing success.
The Last of Us Part 1is now available on PC and PS5.
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