The Last of Us

The Last of Us  is a 2013  action-adventure game  developed by  Naughty Dog  and published by  Sony Computer Entertainment . Players control  Joel , a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl,  Ellie , across a  post-apocalyptic  United States.  The Last of Us  is played from a  third-person perspective . Players use firearms and  improvised weapons  and can use  stealth  to defend against hostile humans and  cannibalistic  creatures  infected  by a mutated fungus in the genus  Cordyceps . In the  online multiplayer  mode, up to eight players engage in  cooperative  and competitive gameplay. Development of  The Last of Us  began in 2009, soon after the release of Naughty Dog's previous game,  Uncharted 2: Among Thieves . For the first time in the company's history, Naughty Dog split into two teams; while one team developed  Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception , the other half developed  The Last of Us . The relationship between Joel and Ellie became the focus, with all other elements developed around it. Actors  Troy Baker  and  Ashley Johnson  portrayed Joel and Ellie, respectively, through  voice  and  motion capture , and assisted creative director  Neil Druckmann  with the development of the characters and story. The  original score  was composed and performed by  Gustavo Santaolalla . Following its announcement in December 2011,  The Last of Us  was widely anticipated. It was released for the  PlayStation 3  in June 2013. It received critical acclaim, with praise for its narrative, gameplay, visuals, sound design, score,  characterization , and depiction of female characters.  The Last of Us  became one of the  best-selling video games , selling over 1.3 million units in its first week and 17 million by April 2018. The game  won year-end accolades , including multiple  Game of the Year  awards, from several gaming publications, critics, and game award ceremonies. It has been cited as one of the  greatest video games ever made . Naughty Dog released several  downloadable content  additions;  The Last of Us: Left Behind  adds a single-player campaign following Ellie and her best friend, Riley. A remastered version,  The Last of Us Remastered , was released for the  PlayStation 4  in July 2014, and a remake,  The Last of Us Part I , was released in September 2022 for  PlayStation 5  and is scheduled for release on  Windows  in March 2023. The game's success spawned  a media franchise , including  a comic book  in 2013, a live show in 2014,  a sequel  in 2020,  a television adaptation  by  HBO  in 2023,  a tabletop game  by Themeborne in 2023,  an untitled multiplayer game , and an upcoming tabletop game by  CMON .