According to Neil Druckmann, creative direct at Naughty Dog, The Last of Us was originally not a dark zombie game at all. In fact, the first project that the team was working on was a reboot of Jak and Daxter . Naughty Dog spent a lot of time thinking about the Jak and Daxter world and explored concepts that wouldn’t really fly in a Jak and Daxter- style game. Eventually, the team wondered if they were just using the Jak and Daxter name for marketing reasons. Eventually, the team asked their boss whether or not they HAD to do a Jak and Daxter reboot, and when they were told they didn’t, the team quickly got a start on The Last of Us .
Imagine what things would have been like if they did take the Jak and Daxter route. Perhaps we would see Jak shooting a fungal infected Daxter in the head with a shotgun. Now that’s a game that I want to play!
Source: The Sixth Axis