LogInThe head of Xbox expressed his admiration for the show and praised the team behind the series, specifically highlighting Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann for successfully transferring the story from the original PlayStation game to a television drama.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has recently shared his thoughts on the TV adaptation of Naughty Dog's popular series The Last of Us.
Speaking to IGN, Spencer said that he believes the show is "fantastic" and praised the creators of the series and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann in particular, for successfully adapting the story from the original PlayStation game to a TV drama.
"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," the Xbox boss said.
He went on to note that the HBO show is a good example of how a "great creator" from the video game industry, like Druckmann, is transitioning their talent to another medium and that it showcases the abundance of talented storytellers and creators in the video game industry.
The Last of Us TV show has proven to be highly successful, with its first episode drawing in viewership of 4.7 million, becoming the second-largest premiere on HBO since 2010. After just one week, Episode 1's viewership skyrocketed to 18 million, a significant increase from its initial 4.7 million viewers, and by January 27, this figure grew to an even more impressive 22 million views.
Episode 2 continued the show's success and broke new records, showing a 22% increase from the previous week's 4.7 million viewers and becoming the series with the largest week two audience growth in the history of HBO.
The show has received immense love and appreciation from its audience, as evidenced by its reviews. It currently has a 9.3 rating on IMDb and has received a 97% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a strong consensus among both professional reviewers and viewers.
The TV series's tremendous success has not gone unnoticed by its creators and the TV network responsible for producing it and soon after Episode 2 was aired, HBO announced that it has renewed the video game-based show for Season 2.
It appears that the second season of the series will be based on The Last of Us Part II, as the first season is set to cover all events from the original game. This was also hinted at directly by franchise co-creator Neil Druckmann on his Twitter account.
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