The Last of Us 2 might be landing on PC in the future, although we should immediately note the major caveat upfront that this is speculation built on pretty shaky ground.
Still, plenty of online chatter has been stoked by a LinkedIn job posting which specifies some interesting skills for a graphics programmer to be part of the team working on The Last of Us 2.
The requirements call for:
- Thorough understanding of current GPU architectures (AMD GCN, Nvidia CUDA)
- Experience with DirectX12, Vulkan or other modern graphics or compute APIs
- Console or PC programming experience
The bits to focus on are that developer Naughty Dog is asking for someone with understanding of Nvidia GPUs – remember, Sony’s PS4 and PS5 have AMD graphics – and also PC programming chops, as well as experience with DX12.
All of these points raise questions about why the dev would want a programmer with DX12 and Nvidia knowledge for the PlayStation sequel, and indeed why specifically mention PC programming experience?
Unless, of course, a PC port is planned for the future – which would perhaps be a much less feasible prospect if there hadn’t been a swirl of strong rumors around a version of Horizon: Zero Dawn for the PC.
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Generic post?
On the other hand, we’d be foolish to read too much into a simple job description which could, of course, be a pretty generic post, with some spiel perhaps copy-and-pasted from elsewhere. Or Naughty Dog could just want a programmer with broad knowledge across all platforms and technologies for all manner of reasons which are nothing to do with making a PC port.
The Last of Us is due out on PS4 on May 29, and could well launch on PS5 eventually as well, with Sony’s next-gen console expected to arrive at the end of 2020.
As you’re doubtless aware, we’ve seen PlayStation exclusives land on PC before, such as Detroit: Become Human – and Death Stranding is inbound too (for the middle of 2020).
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