The Last of Us studio has multiple single-player titles in development…
Information originally from MinnMax's Ben Hanson. There is an existing game used to describe this new game to Hanson as a point of reference, and all we know is that that game is not Hitman.
For Naughty Dog? They have a solid track record of great games. I'm more enthusiastic than pessimistic, but it sucks it'll likely be a PlayStation exclusive for a while.
I'm mixed on it. They just cancelled their multiplayer game because it wasn't their ballpark, now they want a studio known for linear story-driven experiences to make an open world game (I assume). Could go either way.
Player freedom doesn't mean open world. Crysis for example spoke a lot about player freedom because it gave you a ton of different tools to go through the levels as you wanted. But it was still a linear single player game
I feel like when developers have a good pedigree, they can apply their concepts elsewhere.
Blizzard hadn't made a shooter before Overwatch, but definitely got it right in so many respects. Bloober team had some mediocre horror games, but was steadily getting better before they made the Silent Hill 2 remake. Valve made just shooters before Portal and then DOTA 2. Heck, easy to forget The Talos Principle, an existential puzzle game is made by the people who made "Uber DUMB MACHO SHOOTER Serious Sam".
Oh yeah, and survival horror team Tango Gameworks making cartoon rhythm combat game Hi-Fi Rush.
Counter point: it's a studio who made a groundbreaking open world series (jak and daxter) who only later became known for linear games returning to their roots