Xbox boss Phil Spencer has praised HBO’s The Last of Us Series, saying he thinks a successful video game adaptation is a great moment for the industry.
In a new interview with IGN, Spencer said the show is “fantastic” and he thinks the team behind The Last of Us have done a great job transferring the story from the original PlayStation video game to a television drama, calling out Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann in particular.
“The fact that Neil himself has played a role, obviously in the creation of the game and the franchise, but see him applying his creative talents in the TV space, if that’s even what we call it anymore, video space, television space, I think is really great,” Spencer said.
“The fact that you take one of the greatest creators from our industry and you can have success in creating in another medium, I just think it shows that in the games industry, you have some amazing storytellers, amazing creators across all third party, first party,” he continued. “I think it’s just a great moment to see the success that they’re having with the franchise.”
The Last of Us premiered earlier in January and its first episode pulled in a hefty 4.7 million viewers, making it HBO’s second best debut of the last decade behind only House of the Dragon. It’s even proved so popular that, after just two episodes, star Bella Ramsey thinks a second season is already likely.
Comparing its success to Xbox’s recent video game adaptation in the Paramount Plus Halo series, Spencer said The Last of Us has set a new bar.
“I want the best for everything that we work on, Halo television series included. I think there’s some differences there, but I don’t think that the point of the question of, ‘Hey, Last of Us is out there, setting an incredibly high bar. Should we all aspire to reach that same bar with the work that we do in television?’ Absolutely,” Spencer said.
“I could say the same thing in video games. Every time I play a great game from somebody, it inspires us to do the best work that we can, to hope that next time we show up, we’re showing up with our best creative, our best ideas, and finding people who either love watching, in the case of the Halo television show, or playing, in the case of things like Hi-Fi Rush and the games that are coming out this year.”
In our 9/10 review of the complete first season, IGN said: “HBO’s The Last of Us is a stunning adaptation that should thrill newcomers and enrich those already familiar with Joel and Ellie’s journey alike.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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