"Across the board in triple-A, it feels like there's no opportunity to inject fresh, innovative ideas."

The Last of Us director Bruce Straley has apologised to the God of War Laufey team at Sony Santa Monica for saying he was "not excited" about the upcoming game's gameplay.

Edge's latest cover story, entitled "The game industry is broken - can we fix it?", talked to nine industry figures, including Straley, about the industry's ongoing crisis of layoffs, ballooning budgets, and shrinking studios.

In the interview, Straley said he'll "probably never" make the triple-A game he actually wants to because modern blockbusters are "boring".

Straley - who spent 18 years at Naughty Dog, where he was game director on The Last of Us and co-director on the first two Uncharted games before leaving in 2017 - is working with a small team at Wildflower Interactive on Coven of the Chicken Foot.

"I have an idea for a triple-A game," he tells Edge. "I will probably never make it. I think the verbs and experiences we're delivering in the triple-A space are…I wanna say boring.

"God Of War Laufey, I look at that game, and every pixel is mindblowing," he added. "The amount of work and skill that's gone into every single frame… I've made those kinds of games, and I'm still blown away. But when I actually look at what you're doing in the game? I'm not excited.

"And that's nothing against the God Of War team. Just, across the board in triple-A, it feels like there's no opportunity to inject fresh, innovative ideas."

Shortly afterwards, Straley apologised to Sony Santa Monica and said his comment had been "used out of context and for clickbait".

Writing on X/Twitter, he said: "I want to apologise to the Laufey team for dragging you all into this uninvited [and] unnecessary negative attention. I was trying to illustrate an industry concern [and] my mistake of naming your game is being used out of context [and] for clickbait. You don’t need this. I'm sorry.

"A journo asked me about the state of our industry. I mentioned a few concerns. One being the lack or [sic] innovation and risks taken in the AAA space. Tho[ugh] this isn't the team's fault!

"My fear is that our player base is getting tired of playing the same verbs for the last 20 years."

In a follow-up tweet Straley added: "My hypothesis: Our medium is unique because players are DOING a thing. There's a different physiological response than viewers who just WATCH a movie. This requires us creators to continue to push & create new experiences, or we run the risk of diminishing players' dopamine.

"Half-life 2 was released in 2004. Gears: 2006. Bioshock: 2007. Uncharted 2: 2009. The Last of Us: 2013. I feel like those games (and more) set the 'modern AAA' mold. Each felt like they were trying to create a new experience within AAA. But this is only one side of my concerns.

"ANYWAY... blah blah blah. I have thoughts about what's wrong and the possible serious harm done to our industry and how we might be able to fix it. But in trying to have a thoughtful conversation I stuck my foot in my mouth and mentioned Laufey, and that was my mistake."

Santa Monica Studio head of creative, Cory Barlog, recently confirmed that the next mainline, Kratos-starring God of War will pick up after the events of God of War Laufey.

God of War Laufey will release on 16th February 2027. It was revealed as one of the biggest in this year's Summer Game Fest season, and part of a record-breaking State of Play. The surprise reveal generated plenty of discussion, but most of the talk centred on the game's new protagonist, Faye.

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