Last of Us universe 'ripe for more stories' says Naughty Dog

The Last of Us universe is "ripe for more stories," Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has told the PlayStation Blog. The game ships next week exclusively on PlayStation 3 and even though it will wrap up the Joel and Ellie narrative, Druckmann said there's opportunity to tell more stories within the gameworld.

"I think the world is ripe for more stories, but as far as the journey Joel and Ellie goes on it ends with this game," Druckmann said. "We were very conscious that we didn't want to leave this story dangling. If we never do a sequel we're OK with it, because we told the story we needed to tell."

Druckmann explained that Naughty Dog spent a lot of time creating the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us, complete with its disease and how the world has reacted to it. Much of this information has stayed in the background, and that was intentional, Druckmann said.

"But then a lot of that stuff is in the background and we’re very conscious of keeping it there. Because that’s not what the story is about," he said. It's about these two characters and the journey they go on."

The Last of Us launches June 14 across the world. Reviews for the game were published earlier this week. Its Metascore on GameSpot sister site Metacritic stands at 96, making it the highest rated game of 2013 so far, surpassing BioShock Infinite.