As the world eagerly awaits any word on The Last of Us 2, a former Naughty Dog lead character artist's LinkenIn profile mentions that development of the game is underway.

Gematsu reports that former Naughty Dog lead character artist Michael Knowland's LinkedIn profile mentions his time spent working on The Last of Us 2. Knowland worked at Naughty Dog from Oct. 2011 to April 2014. As of now, he works at Avalanche Studios (the team known for Just Cause 3).

During his time working at Naughty Dog, Knowland's profile states he made these contributions to the following projects:

  • The Last of Us – all things main and NPC characters.
  • Uncharted 4 – working on main character Nathan Drake to upgrade the face sculpt, hair (geometry/texturing/shading), facial hair, rigging topology, skin textures and arm/hand details.
  • The Last of Us 2 – 1 month prototyping head sculpts.

Naughty Dog's current lead character artist, Frank Tzeng (Knowland's replacement), has Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and an "unannounced AAA game title" listed on his LinkedIn profile. He took over as lead character artist when Knowland left this past April. That such a successful game would get sequel isn't that surprising, but given how focused Naughty Dog is on Uncharted 4, it's likely TLOU 2 won't be coming anytime before 2016 at the earliest. Here's to hoping Bill returns in The Last of Us 2.

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