The LinkedIn profile of a former Bend Studio employee seems to corroborate rumors that the developer is — or was — working with Naughty Dog on an unannounced project. Neither of the two studios ever officially confirmed what they were co-developing, but the doomed Last of Us multiplayer was once rumored to be their joint project.
Naughty Dog and Bend Studio seemingly collaborated between 2020-2022
As shared on Reddit, the profile in question belongs to former senior gameplay animator Adam Lawson, who was employed by Bend from January 2020 to April 2022. His profile specifically mentions that he “worked with Naughty Dog to prototype and create content on an unannounced project.” But in the same job description, he also separately lists one Naughty Dog project and one Bend project as games he worked on.
Bend Studio has never alluded to what it’s working on and has only previously confirmed that it has a new game in development. Beyond this, we have no confirmation of anything. It’s possible that during Lawson’s employment, Bend was merely assisting or seeking assistance from Naughty Dog.
If reports of the two PlayStation developers working on The Last of Us multiplayer are true, this collaboration may have ended a while ago.
