Naughty Dog Officially Celebrates The Last of Us Day with DLC

2026/09/28

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Published Sep 28, 2026, 3:40 PM EDT

Austin Manchester is a writer and editor living in New York City. At Polygon, he covers gaming and entertainment news, reviews new video games, interviews behind-the-scenes talent, and more. He enjoys discovering hidden gems and sharing them with Polygon's audience. Previously, he was the gaming editor for AIPT Comics and has written for other outlets like XDA, How-To Geek, and The List.

He enjoys soulslikes, character-driven RPGs, and third-person shooters plucked straight out of the Xbox 360 era. He also likes to flex his non-video game nerdy knowledge sometimes, whether that's explaining who's who in the new Wolverine game or recommending a comic book series about a sentient sword.

Still no word about a potential Part 3

Ellie looks out the window of a truck while Joel drives in a screenshot from The Last of Us Part 1 Image: Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment

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Each year in September, Naughty Dog celebrates The Last of Us Day (formerly called Outbreak Day until the studio wisely changed it in 2020). Sept. 26 is the in-game date of the Cordyceps outbreak, and Naughty Dog uses that day as an opportunity to celebrate the franchise with things like new wallpapers, very cool merch, and a trailer for the HBO show. This year, the most notable announcement might be DLC... for an entirely different game series.

Naughty Dog collaborated with Ghost series developer Sucker Punch on a clicker-inspired armor set for Ghost of Yōtei. It'll be available for download on Thursday, coinciding with the launch of Ghost of Yōtei: Complete Edition and its Echoes of Sekigahara expansion. You gotta admit: It looks pretty freakin' sick.

Naughty Dog's blog post about The Last of Us Day 2026 led with the announcement that the series has official social media accounts now, so maybe it's not super surprising DLC for an entirely different game is the highlight of the announcements. It also revealed a collaboration with Youtooz on a new Bloody Clicker figure. Cool.

A charity stream for AbleGamers (starting at 5 p.m. EDT Monday), a subway "ambiance" video, discounts at Steam and Epic, new Steam avatars for Part 1 and Part 2, a The Last of Us-themed PlayStation background, and more PlayStation avatars were also part of the announcements. Use the below codes to get the PlayStation avatars:

Unsurprisingly, Naughty Dog didn't mention anything about the future of the series. The studio is currently working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which is currently without a release window. After that? It's not publicly known what Naughty Dog will work on next, or if the studio's flagship franchises — The Last of Us and Uncharted, which hasn't had a new release since 2017 — will return.

Series co-creator Neil Druckmann recently offered hope for fans, saying the studio is "not done with The Last of Us" after the HBO adaptation wraps. The TV series will come to an end in 2027 with season 3.

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