With The Game Awards 2016 just around the corner, developer Naughty Dog is leading the field with Uncharted 4: A Thief's End up for eight nominations in six categories, including Game of the Year. Two days following the Game Awards, Sony will be hosting their annual PlayStation Experience (PSX 2016) at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California; where another of Naughty Dog's hyper-popular titles, The Last of Us, could be making waves.

PSX 2016 is a two day event where fans will be treated to developer panels and the opportunity to try out over 100 different games. Six dev panels have been scheduled, but only three have been revealed in advance of the actual event. PlayStation has listed just 96 of the available games that will be showcased, and continues to tease fans about "secret" panels on the PS Blog.

Rumors of a follow-up game to The Last of Us have been circulating for a few years now, yet there has never been any confirmation from Naughty Dog (or Sony) as to whether or not the game is actually in development. The rumor laden trail of breadcrumbs for this sequel runs long, with NeoGAF forums claiming to have "insider information" that the announcement is forthcoming. Additional sources cited have gone as far back as 2015, listing Uncharted writers as having confirmed a Last of Us sequel, or even running with a quote from Uncharted's lead voice actor, Nolan North, as PSU points out.

Most recently, we've heard that the film version of the acclaimed game is stuck in limbo as producer Sam Raimi spoke candidly about creative differences between Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann and Sony executives. While speculation runs rampant about a supposed imminent game announcement, especially given Sony's clandestine panels at their event in December, logic points to Naughty Dog announcing their Uncharted 4 single player DLC as one of the big announcements for PSX 2016.

The highly anticipated Uncharted 4 DLC is expected to be massive in scope, and the resources the developer would need to make sure it is successful seem to suggest there isn't enough room to also be developing The Last of Us 2. But that argument seems thin given the likelihood that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and The Last of Us might have had some development overlap when they were released in late 2011 and mid 2013, respectively.

So the question remains... Would Sony/Naughty Dog scoop themselves by overshadowing a potential Uncharted 4 announcement at PSX 2016 in favor of revealing The Last of Us 2? While the Sony exclusive event gets several thousand visitors, it does not have the same global audience as something like E3.

As of right now, The Last of Us 2 has no been confirmed and has no anticipated release date.

Source: NeoGAF