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The Last of Us and Uncharted director Bruce Straley apologized to Santa Monica Studio after remarks he made to Edge magazine, in which he said he was 'not excited' by aspects of God of War: Laufey and criticized modern AAA games as boring, drew significant backlash. Straley clarified he found the game's visuals 'mindblowing' and was impressed by the studio's effort, but said his comments were misconstrued and brought unwanted negative attention to the Laufey team. He also pointed to industry leadership more broadly as a source of triple-A stagnation, framing his critique as aimed at executive decision-making rather than the developers themselves.