The creative minds of Naughty Dog officially announced that The Last of Us 2 would be coming soon to gamers across the globe. The announcement was met with wild enthusiasm as fans of the gritty, and heartbreaking original game learned of this new development. However, that excitement has taken a bit of a blow as we learned that director Bruce Straley will not be returning to create the sequel, as hoped.

Sony confirmed this in a statement to Kotaku, stating that “Bruce recently decided to take some much deserved time off after shipping two critically acclaimed games in the last few years. He’s looking forward to returning to the studio soon and jumping back in on his next project.”

While this is somewhat of a disappointment for avid fans, we do know for certain that Staley’s co-director, Neil Druckmann, will still be directing the sequel. Druckmann and Staley were the geniuses responsible for hits like the original Last of Us and Uncharted 4 after Amy Hennig left the studios. Knowing that at least one half of the dynamic duo is still on board with creating the newest Naughty Dog title gives us comfort that the latest game will still be a big hit.

If you’re still concerned about the fate of the upcoming sequel for any reason at all, don’t worry. Yesterday at the PlayStation Experience, Neil Druckmann himself put any worries to rest in a statement during the Last of Us panel, promising that the studios would “do right” by the fans to bring them a great addition to an already phenomenal story.

What do you think of this latest news break? Are you looking forward to when Bruce Straley returns to bring us more games in the future? Let us know in the comments below, and game on!