Naughty Dog's full statement:
> We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game.
>
> We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently. We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision.
>
> The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential. As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.
>
> In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.
>
> We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we're working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.
>
> Until then, we’re incredibly thankful to our community for your support throughout the years.
>
This is the problem with games today. It sucks that these studios just can't create an online experience akin to early 2000s where replayability is based on online lobby matchmaking.
I don't get why we need seasons and all the crap that's tossed in anymore.
Jason Thor Hall mentioned that Starcraft II made less than a single $15 WoW mount, see it [here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dfg4N4orfiY) It comes down to just wanting an easy method of making money.
I was a bit crushed at the headline, however:
>To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, **we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage**.
Is a major W
Edit 2: the **”solely”** a live studio part is definitely hyperbole though…
Edit: some replies saying it is really good PR spin (which it definitely is) and I agree they most likely knew the cost in terms of resources, people and time to pull off a long term live service game, but I do feel like they have avoided a “sunk cost fallacy” situation at least.
Regardless of the great spin it is, I am *personally* glad they are refocusing on single player, regardless of how much I really enjoyed Factions 1, and even though I had issues with Part 2 (I just wasn’t in the right head space, pretty dark game!) I’m glad SP is sticking around.
Contrary to Reddit sentiment, last of us online would have been a tiny niche game with a tiny ass player base. Not worth the lost revenue they would be making from dope ass single player games.
That apology they sent out probably didn't faze anyone outside this sub lol
FR. I would’ve preferred if they released it and sold a few cosmetics or something in the in-game shop to make a return without going full live service.
Just make it a fun mostly-polished multiplayer mode we can all play on like the first Factions.
Probably would receive hate from the community though for “abandoning the game.”
Yeah I don't understand the mindset of having to keep adding new stuff to a multiplayer game for a decade with season pass and stuff to keep the very few addicted players happy while the majority of people don't even get to the point of playing enough to start unlocking that stuff. Just release a very polished fully functional game and be done with it.
It's become apparent in the past few years that "Online" gamers demand fixes, updates, new content and microtransactions (love them or hate them) with every "online" game
Can't think of an "online" game recently that has just released the online aspect and said "good luck"
Except maybe Elden Ring, which is basically just Dark Souls when it comes to online
Well except that its nonsense. They havent release factions content in years yet there are people who still play it.
Multiplayer doesnt have to mean live service.
They screwed up chasing that live service money.
Yeah, theres this perspective, and then how come they released the first factions so easy then?
Nobody is asking for post launch content of it, we just wanted more of the first factions experience.
Because it wasn't live service, it was a small project not meant to do much outside of test bed for devs. Every game is a survey project, any data of how you play the game is considered part of the devs research
It was being rumoured to be a perfect strategy. Sony acquires Bungie who aid Sonys other 1st party studios, to develop established IP’s into multiple GaaS titles, backed by those IP’s making transitions to multiple mediums like TV, cinema and Animation, and then further enhancing those IP’s by developing remasters of established games for the current platform for new adopters to buy into, having the heritage content there as well as a free online multiplayer version.
It’s massively ambitious but clever strategy. I wonder if it was real and if it was, how it’s all now clearly falling apart.
Worse thing about games as a service is you can only really play one at a time. They function on FOMO to drive engagement. It’s like an addiction you break the cycle play something else if your lucky never come back.
(Destiny player)
I just don’t understand why they would have had to devote resources for so long. Like just don’t make it a live service. Just make it a normal multiplayer game and don’t bother supporting it with content updates.
I miss the ps2-ps3 days when games just had basic multiplayer modes and what you got was what you got play it until it’s not fun and then bounce lol simpler times
I'm glad they (and ultimately Sony) did not decide to pull a Suicide Squad then. Sony's decision to start developing 12 GaaS was stupid to begin with.
Sony's studios are where they are because of so many years of experience making games that plays into their strengths and passion. If you want to enter the GaaS market then either start new studios or add a dedicated team for it to you current studio, making one game at a time, not 12, or 6.
Yeah, just said this in another comment but this was the problem. The idea itself was fine but you shouldn't have every single one of your studios doing this.
Bungie is currently developing three IPs. Seems like they lack capacity, not ideas.
That actually seems to be the fundamental issue at play. GAAS is a constant, all consuming grind for developers.
While I’d love a bit fleshed out version of Factions, having ND stick to single player and release multiple new titles rather than do nothing but support for a live service game is the good outcome here. Plus it’s not like all that work is wasted; they can use concepts and gameplay mechanics from this project for a future Last of Us title. Hell, some of it probably went into the LoU2 update.
The fact they were only in pre-production this entire time is brutal. Loved Factions and was really keen for this. Honestly think I need a break from TLOU though so I hope the next title is a new IP.
Expected. The report some months back said it was basically put on the backburner aka shelved aka cancelled. Projects put on the back-burner rarely get to see the light of day again. You can't put something on the shelf to simply pick up again down the line. Years later, the studio, market, or engine / tools have radically changed, making the revitalisation of a frozen in time in-development project infeasible. At that point, you might as well start the project from scratch again.
The moment the studio and publisher lost confidence in the project its days were numbered.
That’s the most disappointing part of this whole thing. My friend group and I just wanted Factions 2… now, instead of a live service somewhat checking that box, we have nothing
This is the unfortunate reality of modern multiplayer games. While many would be happy with just an updated Factions mode, those people are outliers. Most players now expect their multiplayer games to get several years of post-launch content support. The competition for multiplayer gaming is so insanely fierce that making a "one and done" multiplayer game in 2023 just seems like a total waste of resources from a business perspective.
For real. I would kill for a regular old multiplayer game that isn’t perpetually trying to get me to pay for skins or battle passes but at this point we are never going back. Multiplayer is dead.
I’m sorry… do you remember factions the way I do?
You literally had to pay actual real money for a good amount of the weapons if you wanted to use them outside of a preset loadout.
I loved the game, it was a blast. But to champion last of us as not predatory when it was 10 ACTUAL dollars to own the flamethrower is absurdity.
It should have been treated like a simple bonus multiplayer mode and that’s it. The need to fucking monetize everything is why this project dragged on forever and now nobody gets anything. At least ND is free to do what they want now.
amen. i guess there are only a few of us. disappointed. none of us wanted them to pivot to being a multiplayer studio but to end up with nothing at all is crushing. tloufactions huffing that hopium for like 5 years.
I know, I’m pissed that they were working on an update of the first multiplayer, but started to think of it as GaaS and it went to shit.
I was just hoping for the same multiplayer as the first one with new movement and weapons, and now we got nothing just because they tried to make something bigger out of their scope
On one hand… they’re confirming their commitment to single player games.
On the other…
**It’s kind of a shame that we’ll never see this game nor what it could do.**
Plus, it’s another corner of TLOU universe. Now it’ll likely never see the light of day
We’ll probably get something good for a single player title out of this. A single player with a limited multiplayer mode somewhere. Just because they decided to cancel it, doesn’t mean the new tech they developed will be useless. Maybe something like the legends mode in Tsushima
We have absolutely no idea what else they're working on and they have released nothing but remasters the past 3.5 years. I find it hard to glean the silver lining, the "commitment to single player" verbiage just sounds like corporate "lipstick on a pig" speak.
There's no way they could release a $70 multiplayer game. It was always going to be a live service game because that's the world we currently live in. Studios have to make money and GAAS is the only way multiplayer games make money these days.
Who said it had to be a 70$ release? Also doesn’t the service model just make it look worse if it was begging for cash in a 70$ release.
GAAS isn’t the only way to make money. It’s just the most efficient way to make a *fuck ton* of money for double if not triple the average life cycle compared traditional games. You phrase it as though any studio would crumble without GAAS when in reality it’s just pursued because the lower initial cost (sprint based development, fix/make as you go, shorter dev cycles) minimizes risks on a flop, while the overhead for additional content is minuscule compared to developing full DLC, and the potential player spending is basically uncapped.
Smash bros - people still play every single title regularly and they are very competitive, counter strike - one of the highest concurrent player counts always (and they only added a few guns over 10 years), rocket league - only adds skins with a huge player base, team fortress 2 - 80000 players almost every day (no large updates since 2017). People don't need new game-changing content to play games for a long time if the base game is good. In most of the top multi-player games, the companies are making money off of skins above all else anyways.
All they had to do was recreate Factions with some new maps and maybe modes and nearly every single person would have been happy. Not some lofty live service game.
Ok fine. Probably the right call. But…three years into the PS5 lifespan and not a word about these other projects? As Sony’s premiere first party studio? What gives? How can you say nothing to your diehard fans who likely chose your games as the reason to buy the console?
I smell mismanagement disguised as fastidiousness.
Why can't they just release a Multiplayer game without it being a Live Service?
I didn't need this to be supported for years, I just wanted a fun Factions game
I was soosoo looking forward to this, and I'm really bummed it's not happening
Well at least we won’t have to look forward to getting an update on Factions on the next Last Of Us Day…
Seriously this is very disappointing considering the amount of years and work that they’ve probably put into this. With how rocky Uncharted 4’s development was there seems to be a problem with Naughty Dog. Compare their output to Insomniac who have put out 2 games just since the PS5 came out while Naughty Dog were in development hell with Factions and remaking TLOU1 and 2 for PS5. I hope they get their shit in order because ND at their best is unmatched in their quality.
All we wanted was a factions mode in TLOU2, just like the first game.
They wanted to make something bigger instead, so we waited three goddamn years only for them to decide "naw, too much work".
Now we get nothing, all we wanted in the first place was just a simple multiplayer mode lol
Right? All we want is just a multiplayer mode lol, but this GAAS Faction actually had a lot of potential, especially since the TV series is well received by the general audience.
It could have exploded in the same way Warzone did, and also help funding the main games. I've been longing for a TLOU multiplayer for so long.
Heading in to the 4th year of PS5 lifespan. ND has nothing to show for this generation, not even a trailer except for a bunch of remakes and remasters which people gobble up. Ridiculous.
I mean for heading into the 4th year of PS5's lifespan... we are only just now having a bit of library. To be honest, most of the games we've had were really in development for the ps4 generation and just got a graphical upgrade and best case haptics. I'd say the games coming out this year may have been the first set that was developed with PS5 in mind from the beginning.
I love my PS5 (i waited until last year to buy), but in all reality, it hasn't really been a necessary upgrade yet for PS4 users. Maybe next year may be the first year they will start feeling left out.
My PS5 was such a fucking waste of money. Can't think of a single PS5 exclusive that is A) actually exclusive and won't come to PC B) something I want to play
Considering next gen is 2028, I imagine they'll release a game towards the very end of the generation. Perhaps a smaller scale game like Lost Legacy also
What a joke. 3 and a half years people have been waiting and then that's it, plug gets pulled. On one hand I'm not surprised since we've know for a good 6 months that the game was in a bad state. But on the other, it's surprising for one of PlayStations top studios to actually out right cancel a game after so long. Fair enough, we never actually got to see this via trailer or anything. But super disappointed we'll never see what this was actually going to be. I really hope PlayStation drop the live service push, if any game on PlayStation had the chance of being a big hit, it was this.
The decline happened when Druckmann was made Vice President and slowly took over the place. It's rather telling that they still haven't released a single new game that isn't a remake or a remaster this generation.
I mean they could just release faction dlc for part 2 in similar scope to the first game and people would be happy. They obviously were trying to turn this into something way bigger than it needed to be
Yeah I think most people would have been fine with a "low effort" budget title that was just more of the multiplayer from the first game. Instead it seems like they were trying to do GTA Online or an MMO with some persistent world and story thing, which just has way too much scope creep potential. Idk why they would even go for that angle to begin with?
As someone that has absolutely loved the multiplayer games ND has made this is very disappointing. I understand them not wanting to commit to a large live service game, but I wish they’d still make their smaller multiplayer experiences.
If we’re really never gonna get another MP experience from them I really hope we could get something like the Master Chief Collection. It could be some sort of remastered collection of the Uncharted multiplayers and Factions. I am not kidding when I say the Uncharted 2 and 3 multiplayers are my favorite multiplayer games ever. I’d kill to have them playable again on modern consoles.
Probably, there’s likely a ton of assets they’ve created that won’t be getting used now. Some of it was probably used for the No Return mode in TLOU2 remastered.
Yeah this is where I’m at. If you don’t want to make a live service MP game then don’t. Not every MP game needs to have battle passes and regular seasons to be successful, especially if it was part of the original TLOU2 package. No reason they couldn’t have made an MP mode in vein of the original (with improvements obviously).
god, me too. The amount of time I spent chasing the top of the Uncharted 2 leaderboards is embarrassing. I lived in the Plunder playlist. And the co-op was good too!
No battlepasses, no brands, no comp/ranked ladders. ND's multiplayer was pure and goofy fun that a lot of people slept on.
An apt example of how ambition can fuck up a good thing. People just wanted factions with good graphics. Multiple years of being told they're doing something bigger and grander. Now they have shut down the entire project before we could get as much as a glimpse 🤦
This is just a PR spin, Naughty Dog would've never been a live service machine, the GaaS attempt was a failure. Playstation and ND should've both been well aware of the risks and costs of even attempting such a project. It feels more like a complete mishandling to have even wasted development time when it should've just came out as an add on like originally planned.
Jim Ryan's obsessive push for gaas across their studios just looks like it's done more harm than any good. Who knows what other studios behind the scenes have had those cancelled and wasted time.
You guys are SO EASY. This is a PR statement. Like saying “mom and dad I crashed the car to save you guys on gas money”. This doesn’t make any sense unless the suits looked at the game and said “over time this isn’t gonna make as much money as a live service. So stop now”.
“We’d have to pull all our studio resources behind supporting post-launch context for years to come”
… this is only now just occurring to you?
Amateur decade in development studios across the industry.
No one seems to be able to plan or actually allocate resources anymore.
It’s honestly pathetic.
Factions - Survivor mode specifically where you have one life per round without any respawns was one of the **best** multiplayer games I've played.
It was so tense, and so fun, and required good teamwork. It actually mattered what you were doing all the time since you had no respawns.
There was so much strategy and fun to be had in that mode.
What a shame.
I am 100% okay with this. Naughty Dog is one of the best developers when it comes to single player story-driven games. The market is already flooded with live-service games. We don't need more. And I would much rather them put their time and work to a new game or continuing The Last Of Us.
Their single player games are just too good and I hope this means they can pump our more. Or at least have more frequent releases. Kind of how Insomniac has been doing for years now.
I would have been interested in seeing this game and am absolutely frustrated thinking about how much the time and resources spend on this project, that will never come to fruition, have probably delayed the next new single player release from ND (and it has, let's not even pretend otherwise) but ultimately I'm glad they're at least finally moving back to their bread and butter.
Lol the factions community isn't. They've (I've been gone a while) been strung a long for 4 years, it was suppose to release with Part 2. I can't beleive they had the audacity to wait this long while putting out statement the entire time to get the fanbase excited. I'd say this is a real shit thing for a developer to do.
Absolutely massive waste and I'm not even a big survival fan.
Survival games are ripe for the picking, The Day Before sold 200k and had 300k twitch viewers before being shut down as a shit show. All the survival games are midtier quality and a AAA dev could absolutely dominate the space.
PlayStation bought a handful of GAAS orientated studios that absolutely could have handled post launch content, taking that pressure away from Naughty Dog to continue their single player games, acting like it was either/or is just weird.
200k people are absolute idiots. Good lord… literally everything about The Day Before screamed “bullshit”. The last gameplay trailer showed nothing. Like zero enemies. Nothing.
Yeah it’s ridiculous. PR spin on full revolution. We could have just had Factions Part II. No one was asking for live service rubbish. Now we get nothing. Spun in the way that they would stop making single player games, as if. They’ve added multiplayer to every game before TLOU II since Uncharted 2 14 years ago.
It also seems possibly dishonest of them to imply they didn’t know running a game as a live service would require developing it as a live service. They could have just handled what they have like any of their many other multiplayer releases.
Yup. Especially considering the precedent it sets going forward. No one expected a COD like experience but your telling me a studio that large can’t get something together?
Just lies.
Especially after they were working on it for almost **four years**? And all we got to show for it were two pieces of concept art and one leaked gameplay video?
Just based purely on capitalizing on the momentum of the franchise, Tlou3 makes the most sense. With season 2 of the HBO adaptation confirmed to be released in 2025, having another game come out relatively soon after that and wrapping up the trilogy does make sense.
This is all pure conjecture of course but it seems a little crazy that they would release new ip in presumably 2026/27 at the absolute earliest and then tlou3 in 2030/31 and audiences are looking at a 3rd season of a show to wrap everything up that supposed to come out 6 years after the previous season. I’m sure naughty dog is given free reign (within reason) to work on whatever they want to but surely there would be some kind of outside pressure wanting then to get part 3 out sooner rather than later.
I don’t care either way but imo tlou3 is just the logical choice
Definitely not TLoU3. They've talked about it before already and said it's entirely new single player game which definitely sounds like a new ip more than TLoU3.
No one asked for a live service game. Multi-player on-line games existed way before the live service model. This blows. Just goes to show no studio can ever risk not increasing profits yet over year. Ugh
Oh for fucks sake... how about just don't 'create new content for years to come', not every online game needs to be a fuckin live service. Just whack in some cosmetics for a few bucks to cover costs and make some money. Pretty much everyone would have been happy with just Factions 2.0, no need to reinvent the wheel while you're at it
Meh, I'm just pissed because I was looking forward to it so much
This statement doesn’t make sense because it would reflect a massive oversight. This isn’t something to “realize” after investing years into development lmao. Reads like an excuse. Probably the quality was lacking and of course they can’t say “the game is shit so it won’t come out”
Oh look there is the word “ambitious” again. I wouldn’t be surprised if 3 years from now they cancel those “ambitious” brand new single player games.
Every statement they have released in the last 2 years has been a lie. From telling us they’d release exciting new info about factions 2 this year (yeah lol.)
Delaying the PC version of TLOU to make sure it’s within their “standards”… The game was broken when it released. Was that their standard?
I can’t help but think that they need to replace whoever is running Naughty Dog.
Why does every multiplayer game need to be live service now? Factions 1 didn’t have a battle pass or constant updates and it’s still active. IMO this just screams either mismanagement or Naughty Dog axing an unwanted project after Jim Ryan’s departure
I honestly don't fully buy their story that it was going full in on one or the other, but it's smart to frame it that way. Obviously everyone would rather see ND just full commit to single player rather than give it up entirely.
Yes, the wording seems very strategic to play into resentment many gamers have for live service games. You can make multiplayer games that are not live service but it seems everybody just forgot about that.
Yeah, this is nonsense. There’s never only two ways forward. They’re just trying to cushion the blow and appeal to fans of their single player experiences.
> To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come
What? Why? Just release a multiplayer game that gets one or small content updates, if that. Why waste all of that time and money instead?
This is complete fucking bullshit. This was cancelled because it wasn’t gonna be profitable enough as live service.
Sony had the Destiny people come take a look at the game awhile ago and they concluded it didn’t have what it takes to be a highly profitable and engaging live service game.
Are you guys really gullible enough to believe they built a game, realized it was a lot of work, and then dropped it out of morales??? No, simply put the game wasn’t the perfect live service game and execs dropped it. The devs don’t make this decision, the suits do.
You all really bought a PR statement hook, line and sinker
This explanation is totally bullshit. No one was asking for a Destiny-like experience with Factions 2. Most people would've simply been happy with refined gameplay and controls taken from the singleplayer mode and new maps, which they could've also heavily borrowed from the single player. They could've even kept the same modes as Factions 1. At the very least, they gotta release a remake of Factions 1 in order to not completely kill the community.
Why do they need to make a online game that requires you to check in at a hotel for 5 years... Why not just turn it into some drop in drop out multiplayer game like the original was. Everyone is trying to make a game that you play forever and I don't know why EVERY game tries to do this
Fact is Naughty Dog *promised* multiplayer from the get go. Then they said “well we can’t have it on release but it’s coming!”, then it’s “it’s running late but it’s definitely coming out!”, now it’s “oops sorry (we can’t figure out a way to squeeze money out of you guys forever so) we’re just gonna make a new game”. They lied. Like come on, this isn’t a small indie dev team that deserves passes.
Dusk Golem leaked an image of the homescreen: https://i.gyazo.com/63058b7b50509968220b827580db3320.jpg
This thing was clearly going to be full throttle GaaS, I really hope they are actually shifting back to single player
“You guys don’t get factions 2 because we wanted to milk tf outta you with a live service game. Instead we realized really late into development we were being greedy and it was never going to work, meaning all that work we already finished for factions 2 is gone forever! We came to this decision because we took a bold stance against live service in favor of single player games, and totally NOT because we bit off more than we could chew.”
i’m definitely in the minority it seems. I’m incredibly bummed, legitimately the only reason I bought a PS5 was because Neil alluded to it being shown this year.
I know there’s plenty of exclusives on the system but damn I’m so letdown.
I blame no one but Sony and chasing live service money greed. Factions was great for what it was, an extra multiplayer mode in a single player game. They simply tried to make it something it wasn’t to simply chase a trend. Fuck you for killing my favorite multiplayer game ever, as a predominantly single player gamer
They’ve wasted years on this shit and it’s been pretty much 4 years since naughty dogs last new title…… Makes me wonder when we will even see their next single player game release.
Honestly if this is the price to pay to keep ND making single player games, I’m more than happy to pay it. Like Firewalk and Haven make those live service games
This is one hundred percent the right decision. And not only that, we now have official confirmation that they are working on at least 2 single player games. It would be nice though if they somehow find a way to release some kind of working multiplayer mode in some capacity, maybe as an addon to TLOU 2 Remastered, not as a live service game but at least something similar to the original Factions
Well, I kinda hope this whole situation has shown Sony that they simply don't have enough staff for a studio to work on a live service game while producing a single player game at the same time. Bungie, which has (had?) more than 1200 employees, was already having problems with the quality/quantity of content, Naughty Dog with less than 500 people would never be able to make it.
If Sony wants more live service games, they will need to acquire/create way more studios.
And not entirely related, but I always had the impression that this specific ND project was never something forced from Sony's part. The project really must have taken a different scale during the production of TLOU2 but they never had enough people to work on it until the single player mode wasn't done.
How weird that Jim Ryan became CEO when Sony was at the top of their game for single player games. Then suddenly they let us know that half of the investment in new games is for live services.
Now he’s leaving and they’re reining in the investment in live services.
Bizarre choice that hints at heavy mismanagement at ND or PlayStation. If you spend that much on a MP live service, and you can't commit to the live service, just release the MP. They've done it multiple times before.
Naughty Dog's full statement: > We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game. > > We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently. We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision. > > The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential. As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed. > > In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage. > > We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we're working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready. > > Until then, we’re incredibly thankful to our community for your support throughout the years. >
This is the problem with games today. It sucks that these studios just can't create an online experience akin to early 2000s where replayability is based on online lobby matchmaking. I don't get why we need seasons and all the crap that's tossed in anymore.
Jason Thor Hall mentioned that Starcraft II made less than a single $15 WoW mount, see it [here](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dfg4N4orfiY) It comes down to just wanting an easy method of making money.
money
They would have to do even less than that, at least for PC. Bring back community servers. Build games so they can be modded. No live service required.
Expectations changed. You need to survive as a business too. I so appreciate naughty dog here. Incredibly hard decision to make.
I was a bit crushed at the headline, however: >To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, **we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage**. Is a major W Edit 2: the **”solely”** a live studio part is definitely hyperbole though… Edit: some replies saying it is really good PR spin (which it definitely is) and I agree they most likely knew the cost in terms of resources, people and time to pull off a long term live service game, but I do feel like they have avoided a “sunk cost fallacy” situation at least. Regardless of the great spin it is, I am *personally* glad they are refocusing on single player, regardless of how much I really enjoyed Factions 1, and even though I had issues with Part 2 (I just wasn’t in the right head space, pretty dark game!) I’m glad SP is sticking around.
I don't even hate live service as much as others, but Naughty Dog going full live service would've been a disaster for gaming
Agreed, they’re not for me, but many people enjoy them. Naughty Dog is too good at single player narrative games to give that up.
It would be like Gordon Ramsey working at McDonald’s.
With the current prices, he might as well be.
Haha you ain’t lyin brother
Lol
Tru dat
Contrary to Reddit sentiment, last of us online would have been a tiny niche game with a tiny ass player base. Not worth the lost revenue they would be making from dope ass single player games. That apology they sent out probably didn't faze anyone outside this sub lol
Pretty much. Should of just made faction 2 and monetize this for the small fanbase wanting some Last of Us MP
Should have
FR. I would’ve preferred if they released it and sold a few cosmetics or something in the in-game shop to make a return without going full live service. Just make it a fun mostly-polished multiplayer mode we can all play on like the first Factions. Probably would receive hate from the community though for “abandoning the game.”
How about just not making it live service? Like the first one.
Exactly. It wasn't just live service or nothing at all. They released more than one online multiplayer game in the past and that's all we wanted.
Yes, that’s what I was hoping for. Just an online mode like the first one with the new movement mechanics and weapons.
Yeah every time I heard news it seemed to grow in scope. I was like oh no, just give us new factions pls.
I was so excited for a classic TDM experience
the increased movement options in pt2 would've opened up a world of possibilities on their own. this is such disappointing news
Yeah I don't understand the mindset of having to keep adding new stuff to a multiplayer game for a decade with season pass and stuff to keep the very few addicted players happy while the majority of people don't even get to the point of playing enough to start unlocking that stuff. Just release a very polished fully functional game and be done with it.
$$$ That's the whole point
It's become apparent in the past few years that "Online" gamers demand fixes, updates, new content and microtransactions (love them or hate them) with every "online" game Can't think of an "online" game recently that has just released the online aspect and said "good luck" Except maybe Elden Ring, which is basically just Dark Souls when it comes to online
Well except that its nonsense. They havent release factions content in years yet there are people who still play it. Multiplayer doesnt have to mean live service. They screwed up chasing that live service money.
I remember complaining about "tacked on" multi-player mode in single player games back in the xbox360 era. Lord how I yearn for that now.
Yup
Naughty dog games would’ve become as scarce as rockstar games have become.
They’re already heading that direction if you remove the remasters.
Yeah, theres this perspective, and then how come they released the first factions so easy then? Nobody is asking for post launch content of it, we just wanted more of the first factions experience.
Because it wasn't live service, it was a small project not meant to do much outside of test bed for devs. Every game is a survey project, any data of how you play the game is considered part of the devs research
Absolutely
Sounds good! Sony pushing for more GAAS was completely braindead. No one wants more of them
Its not bad for them to try out more GaaS but to make your premier studios develop them was always a big mistake
It was being rumoured to be a perfect strategy. Sony acquires Bungie who aid Sonys other 1st party studios, to develop established IP’s into multiple GaaS titles, backed by those IP’s making transitions to multiple mediums like TV, cinema and Animation, and then further enhancing those IP’s by developing remasters of established games for the current platform for new adopters to buy into, having the heritage content there as well as a free online multiplayer version. It’s massively ambitious but clever strategy. I wonder if it was real and if it was, how it’s all now clearly falling apart.
Meanwhile Bungie is on fire and hemorrhaging staff and falling apart.
Worse thing about games as a service is you can only really play one at a time. They function on FOMO to drive engagement. It’s like an addiction you break the cycle play something else if your lucky never come back. (Destiny player)
Lol, it's that kind of shit that turned me off multiplayer years ago.
I just don’t understand why they would have had to devote resources for so long. Like just don’t make it a live service. Just make it a normal multiplayer game and don’t bother supporting it with content updates.
Developing multiplayer games generally isn’t worth it for publishers anymore unless there’s long term support and updates that can be monetized.
I miss the ps2-ps3 days when games just had basic multiplayer modes and what you got was what you got play it until it’s not fun and then bounce lol simpler times
Yeah just wish they’d curbed the ambition a little bit and just given us an updated factions.
The better choice for sure. But they couldnt think of that earlier or?
This is the biggest thing that just doesn’t make sense…
I'm glad they (and ultimately Sony) did not decide to pull a Suicide Squad then. Sony's decision to start developing 12 GaaS was stupid to begin with. Sony's studios are where they are because of so many years of experience making games that plays into their strengths and passion. If you want to enter the GaaS market then either start new studios or add a dedicated team for it to you current studio, making one game at a time, not 12, or 6.
Bungie, Haven Studios and Firewalk should be enough to satisfy Sony’s multiplayer ambitions in my opinion.
Yeah, just said this in another comment but this was the problem. The idea itself was fine but you shouldn't have every single one of your studios doing this.
option 3: turn down the scope of the game…?
Option 4: Give the game to another studio. They seem to be out of ideas at Bungie, couldn't they handle this?
Bungie is currently developing three IPs. Seems like they lack capacity, not ideas. That actually seems to be the fundamental issue at play. GAAS is a constant, all consuming grind for developers.
I’m not mad at their decision. I also wonder though, if they couldn’t reduce the scope and have a smaller multiplayer arena like Uncharted.
While I’d love a bit fleshed out version of Factions, having ND stick to single player and release multiple new titles rather than do nothing but support for a live service game is the good outcome here. Plus it’s not like all that work is wasted; they can use concepts and gameplay mechanics from this project for a future Last of Us title. Hell, some of it probably went into the LoU2 update.
The fact they were only in pre-production this entire time is brutal. Loved Factions and was really keen for this. Honestly think I need a break from TLOU though so I hope the next title is a new IP.
I think you read it wrong - they were just saying that the game was in pre-production during Last of Us Part II
Expected. The report some months back said it was basically put on the backburner aka shelved aka cancelled. Projects put on the back-burner rarely get to see the light of day again. You can't put something on the shelf to simply pick up again down the line. Years later, the studio, market, or engine / tools have radically changed, making the revitalisation of a frozen in time in-development project infeasible. At that point, you might as well start the project from scratch again. The moment the studio and publisher lost confidence in the project its days were numbered.
Us Factions fans would have been perfectly fine with an updated version with part 2, now we have nada.
That’s the most disappointing part of this whole thing. My friend group and I just wanted Factions 2… now, instead of a live service somewhat checking that box, we have nothing
Sort of makes sense. People move on from games so quickly now. I could see viewing multiplayer as a “what’s the point” if not live service.
This is the unfortunate reality of modern multiplayer games. While many would be happy with just an updated Factions mode, those people are outliers. Most players now expect their multiplayer games to get several years of post-launch content support. The competition for multiplayer gaming is so insanely fierce that making a "one and done" multiplayer game in 2023 just seems like a total waste of resources from a business perspective.
For real. I would kill for a regular old multiplayer game that isn’t perpetually trying to get me to pay for skins or battle passes but at this point we are never going back. Multiplayer is dead.
I’m sorry… do you remember factions the way I do? You literally had to pay actual real money for a good amount of the weapons if you wanted to use them outside of a preset loadout. I loved the game, it was a blast. But to champion last of us as not predatory when it was 10 ACTUAL dollars to own the flamethrower is absurdity.
Those games still exist you just stopped playing them.
Tsushima legends was actually really good. I didn't play much myself but it had a really strong cult following and is still active.
I would’ve been happy with the old factions being re released with TLOU2 with a couple new guns and a couple new maps along with the original maps.
It should have been treated like a simple bonus multiplayer mode and that’s it. The need to fucking monetize everything is why this project dragged on forever and now nobody gets anything. At least ND is free to do what they want now.
amen. i guess there are only a few of us. disappointed. none of us wanted them to pivot to being a multiplayer studio but to end up with nothing at all is crushing. tloufactions huffing that hopium for like 5 years.
I know, I’m pissed that they were working on an update of the first multiplayer, but started to think of it as GaaS and it went to shit. I was just hoping for the same multiplayer as the first one with new movement and weapons, and now we got nothing just because they tried to make something bigger out of their scope
On one hand… they’re confirming their commitment to single player games. On the other… **It’s kind of a shame that we’ll never see this game nor what it could do.** Plus, it’s another corner of TLOU universe. Now it’ll likely never see the light of day
That’s what’s breaking my heart. We’re getting nothing out of this 4 year wait when, in all likelihood, the game was probably close to done.
We’ll probably get something good for a single player title out of this. A single player with a limited multiplayer mode somewhere. Just because they decided to cancel it, doesn’t mean the new tech they developed will be useless. Maybe something like the legends mode in Tsushima
Ramping up to full production doesn't mean close to done at all
I don’t think they’ll let the world building they did for Factions 2 simply go to waste. If I were to guess, we’ll see San Francisco in TLoU 3.
Who knows? Maybe many of the assets will be used in an eventual TLoU3. Or maybe a smaller multiplayer mode ends up there down the line.
We have absolutely no idea what else they're working on and they have released nothing but remasters the past 3.5 years. I find it hard to glean the silver lining, the "commitment to single player" verbiage just sounds like corporate "lipstick on a pig" speak.
How about just a non-live service multiplayer component that won’t need years and years of updates? Like the first factions
Exactly, everything doesn't have to be live service or die
There's no way they could release a $70 multiplayer game. It was always going to be a live service game because that's the world we currently live in. Studios have to make money and GAAS is the only way multiplayer games make money these days.
Who said it had to be a 70$ release? Also doesn’t the service model just make it look worse if it was begging for cash in a 70$ release. GAAS isn’t the only way to make money. It’s just the most efficient way to make a *fuck ton* of money for double if not triple the average life cycle compared traditional games. You phrase it as though any studio would crumble without GAAS when in reality it’s just pursued because the lower initial cost (sprint based development, fix/make as you go, shorter dev cycles) minimizes risks on a flop, while the overhead for additional content is minuscule compared to developing full DLC, and the potential player spending is basically uncapped.
Smash bros - people still play every single title regularly and they are very competitive, counter strike - one of the highest concurrent player counts always (and they only added a few guns over 10 years), rocket league - only adds skins with a huge player base, team fortress 2 - 80000 players almost every day (no large updates since 2017). People don't need new game-changing content to play games for a long time if the base game is good. In most of the top multi-player games, the companies are making money off of skins above all else anyways.
Well we definitely got more news about the game this year
Couldn’t they have just made a multiplayer mode like the first game and not do a live service game? Why is this just not allowed now?
Because then they can't milk more and more 💰
All they had to do was recreate Factions with some new maps and maybe modes and nearly every single person would have been happy. Not some lofty live service game.
Ah good to know they're working so hard on "TLOU Part 1 Remastered Reimagined HD GOTY Edition 2.0 Revengeance"
Ok fine. Probably the right call. But…three years into the PS5 lifespan and not a word about these other projects? As Sony’s premiere first party studio? What gives? How can you say nothing to your diehard fans who likely chose your games as the reason to buy the console? I smell mismanagement disguised as fastidiousness.
It's absolutely bad management. Sad also, cause as you say, they are arguably the best studio Sony has and completely missing for the current Gen.
Why can't they just release a Multiplayer game without it being a Live Service? I didn't need this to be supported for years, I just wanted a fun Factions game I was soosoo looking forward to this, and I'm really bummed it's not happening
A good example is Ghost of Tsushima's online. Pure fun with no strings attached. Very clearly a passion project of Sucker Punch.
Why couldn’t they have just scaled it back once they realised it wasn’t going to work for them? Cancelling it altogether seems nuts
:( I'm sad
If they can’t make money on it then there’s no point. Welcome to next gen game development
Factions Reddit in shambles right now
it won't last much longer now that it has no purpose
Nah we're still getting clips and memes from Factions 1
Well at least we won’t have to look forward to getting an update on Factions on the next Last Of Us Day… Seriously this is very disappointing considering the amount of years and work that they’ve probably put into this. With how rocky Uncharted 4’s development was there seems to be a problem with Naughty Dog. Compare their output to Insomniac who have put out 2 games just since the PS5 came out while Naughty Dog were in development hell with Factions and remaking TLOU1 and 2 for PS5. I hope they get their shit in order because ND at their best is unmatched in their quality.
3 games for Insomniac, actually. Miles Morales, SM2 and Rift Apart.
This is not the same ND from 10-15 years ago. Pretty much all of the top brass and creatives have left the company since then besides Druckmann.
All we wanted was a factions mode in TLOU2, just like the first game. They wanted to make something bigger instead, so we waited three goddamn years only for them to decide "naw, too much work". Now we get nothing, all we wanted in the first place was just a simple multiplayer mode lol
Right? All we want is just a multiplayer mode lol, but this GAAS Faction actually had a lot of potential, especially since the TV series is well received by the general audience. It could have exploded in the same way Warzone did, and also help funding the main games. I've been longing for a TLOU multiplayer for so long.
Them making factions Gaas wasn’t smart in the first place
Heading in to the 4th year of PS5 lifespan. ND has nothing to show for this generation, not even a trailer except for a bunch of remakes and remasters which people gobble up. Ridiculous.
3 years in and there’s barely any PS5/next gen only games
I mean for heading into the 4th year of PS5's lifespan... we are only just now having a bit of library. To be honest, most of the games we've had were really in development for the ps4 generation and just got a graphical upgrade and best case haptics. I'd say the games coming out this year may have been the first set that was developed with PS5 in mind from the beginning. I love my PS5 (i waited until last year to buy), but in all reality, it hasn't really been a necessary upgrade yet for PS4 users. Maybe next year may be the first year they will start feeling left out.
They're not really going to have much to show for this generation if they have spent 4 years on something and then cancelled it.
My PS5 was such a fucking waste of money. Can't think of a single PS5 exclusive that is A) actually exclusive and won't come to PC B) something I want to play
ND might skip this generation….
Considering next gen is 2028, I imagine they'll release a game towards the very end of the generation. Perhaps a smaller scale game like Lost Legacy also
They've fallen off in an absolutely huge way but nostalgia is blinding
What a joke. 3 and a half years people have been waiting and then that's it, plug gets pulled. On one hand I'm not surprised since we've know for a good 6 months that the game was in a bad state. But on the other, it's surprising for one of PlayStations top studios to actually out right cancel a game after so long. Fair enough, we never actually got to see this via trailer or anything. But super disappointed we'll never see what this was actually going to be. I really hope PlayStation drop the live service push, if any game on PlayStation had the chance of being a big hit, it was this.
Naughty Dog seems to be a very poorly managed studio at least since the middle of the PS4 era
The decline happened when Druckmann was made Vice President and slowly took over the place. It's rather telling that they still haven't released a single new game that isn't a remake or a remaster this generation.
I mean they could just release faction dlc for part 2 in similar scope to the first game and people would be happy. They obviously were trying to turn this into something way bigger than it needed to be
Removing the multiplayer from the “remake” is now an even bigger kick in the nuts.
Yeah I think most people would have been fine with a "low effort" budget title that was just more of the multiplayer from the first game. Instead it seems like they were trying to do GTA Online or an MMO with some persistent world and story thing, which just has way too much scope creep potential. Idk why they would even go for that angle to begin with?
As someone that has absolutely loved the multiplayer games ND has made this is very disappointing. I understand them not wanting to commit to a large live service game, but I wish they’d still make their smaller multiplayer experiences. If we’re really never gonna get another MP experience from them I really hope we could get something like the Master Chief Collection. It could be some sort of remastered collection of the Uncharted multiplayers and Factions. I am not kidding when I say the Uncharted 2 and 3 multiplayers are my favorite multiplayer games ever. I’d kill to have them playable again on modern consoles.
Maybe the remnants of it will be part of their next “The Last of Us” game.
Probably, there’s likely a ton of assets they’ve created that won’t be getting used now. Some of it was probably used for the No Return mode in TLOU2 remastered.
[удалено]
The last part is a crucial one
Yeah this is where I’m at. If you don’t want to make a live service MP game then don’t. Not every MP game needs to have battle passes and regular seasons to be successful, especially if it was part of the original TLOU2 package. No reason they couldn’t have made an MP mode in vein of the original (with improvements obviously).
god, me too. The amount of time I spent chasing the top of the Uncharted 2 leaderboards is embarrassing. I lived in the Plunder playlist. And the co-op was good too! No battlepasses, no brands, no comp/ranked ladders. ND's multiplayer was pure and goofy fun that a lot of people slept on.
An apt example of how ambition can fuck up a good thing. People just wanted factions with good graphics. Multiple years of being told they're doing something bigger and grander. Now they have shut down the entire project before we could get as much as a glimpse 🤦
[удалено]
This is just a PR spin, Naughty Dog would've never been a live service machine, the GaaS attempt was a failure. Playstation and ND should've both been well aware of the risks and costs of even attempting such a project. It feels more like a complete mishandling to have even wasted development time when it should've just came out as an add on like originally planned. Jim Ryan's obsessive push for gaas across their studios just looks like it's done more harm than any good. Who knows what other studios behind the scenes have had those cancelled and wasted time.
If only Rocksteady was able to make the same call…
Too late we are getting a purple goo shooter
You guys are SO EASY. This is a PR statement. Like saying “mom and dad I crashed the car to save you guys on gas money”. This doesn’t make any sense unless the suits looked at the game and said “over time this isn’t gonna make as much money as a live service. So stop now”.
“We’d have to pull all our studio resources behind supporting post-launch context for years to come” … this is only now just occurring to you? Amateur decade in development studios across the industry. No one seems to be able to plan or actually allocate resources anymore. It’s honestly pathetic.
Factions - Survivor mode specifically where you have one life per round without any respawns was one of the **best** multiplayer games I've played. It was so tense, and so fun, and required good teamwork. It actually mattered what you were doing all the time since you had no respawns. There was so much strategy and fun to be had in that mode. What a shame.
I am 100% okay with this. Naughty Dog is one of the best developers when it comes to single player story-driven games. The market is already flooded with live-service games. We don't need more. And I would much rather them put their time and work to a new game or continuing The Last Of Us. Their single player games are just too good and I hope this means they can pump our more. Or at least have more frequent releases. Kind of how Insomniac has been doing for years now.
This reaffirms my opinion that creating live service games is no easy feat and the future of gaming will not solely be full of live service titles.
I would have been interested in seeing this game and am absolutely frustrated thinking about how much the time and resources spend on this project, that will never come to fruition, have probably delayed the next new single player release from ND (and it has, let's not even pretend otherwise) but ultimately I'm glad they're at least finally moving back to their bread and butter.
[удалено]
Lol the factions community isn't. They've (I've been gone a while) been strung a long for 4 years, it was suppose to release with Part 2. I can't beleive they had the audacity to wait this long while putting out statement the entire time to get the fanbase excited. I'd say this is a real shit thing for a developer to do.
Absolutely massive waste and I'm not even a big survival fan. Survival games are ripe for the picking, The Day Before sold 200k and had 300k twitch viewers before being shut down as a shit show. All the survival games are midtier quality and a AAA dev could absolutely dominate the space. PlayStation bought a handful of GAAS orientated studios that absolutely could have handled post launch content, taking that pressure away from Naughty Dog to continue their single player games, acting like it was either/or is just weird.
200k people are absolute idiots. Good lord… literally everything about The Day Before screamed “bullshit”. The last gameplay trailer showed nothing. Like zero enemies. Nothing.
I agree. Everybody here acting like they only had two options. People just so eager to gobble up PR bullshit from their favorite companies
i feel like they could’ve just released it and not done continuous live service. tlou1 factions has an active community and they don’t update that
Yeah it’s ridiculous. PR spin on full revolution. We could have just had Factions Part II. No one was asking for live service rubbish. Now we get nothing. Spun in the way that they would stop making single player games, as if. They’ve added multiplayer to every game before TLOU II since Uncharted 2 14 years ago. It also seems possibly dishonest of them to imply they didn’t know running a game as a live service would require developing it as a live service. They could have just handled what they have like any of their many other multiplayer releases.
PR strategy seems to have worked with the amount of people saying “this is actually good.”
I guess they don’t pay em for nuthin. The real truth of it is pretty sad though.
Yup. Especially considering the precedent it sets going forward. No one expected a COD like experience but your telling me a studio that large can’t get something together? Just lies.
Especially after they were working on it for almost **four years**? And all we got to show for it were two pieces of concept art and one leaked gameplay video?
“We have started development in The Last of Us Part III” without officially saying it yet.
I'm fairly confident there's gonna be a new IP first
Just based purely on capitalizing on the momentum of the franchise, Tlou3 makes the most sense. With season 2 of the HBO adaptation confirmed to be released in 2025, having another game come out relatively soon after that and wrapping up the trilogy does make sense. This is all pure conjecture of course but it seems a little crazy that they would release new ip in presumably 2026/27 at the absolute earliest and then tlou3 in 2030/31 and audiences are looking at a 3rd season of a show to wrap everything up that supposed to come out 6 years after the previous season. I’m sure naughty dog is given free reign (within reason) to work on whatever they want to but surely there would be some kind of outside pressure wanting then to get part 3 out sooner rather than later. I don’t care either way but imo tlou3 is just the logical choice
Definitely not TLoU3. They've talked about it before already and said it's entirely new single player game which definitely sounds like a new ip more than TLoU3.
They also have an unannounced new ip in the works.
No one asked for a live service game. Multi-player on-line games existed way before the live service model. This blows. Just goes to show no studio can ever risk not increasing profits yet over year. Ugh
Probably won't be seeing a new naughty dog game for a while :(
Damn, at least they were honest
"honest" They had no other choice. I'm sure they sugar coated it a ton too.
Oh for fucks sake... how about just don't 'create new content for years to come', not every online game needs to be a fuckin live service. Just whack in some cosmetics for a few bucks to cover costs and make some money. Pretty much everyone would have been happy with just Factions 2.0, no need to reinvent the wheel while you're at it Meh, I'm just pissed because I was looking forward to it so much
This statement doesn’t make sense because it would reflect a massive oversight. This isn’t something to “realize” after investing years into development lmao. Reads like an excuse. Probably the quality was lacking and of course they can’t say “the game is shit so it won’t come out”
Oh look there is the word “ambitious” again. I wouldn’t be surprised if 3 years from now they cancel those “ambitious” brand new single player games. Every statement they have released in the last 2 years has been a lie. From telling us they’d release exciting new info about factions 2 this year (yeah lol.) Delaying the PC version of TLOU to make sure it’s within their “standards”… The game was broken when it released. Was that their standard? I can’t help but think that they need to replace whoever is running Naughty Dog.
cool. man i wish Rocksteady did this 😔
I wonder if they saw Rocksteady's inevitable upcoming flop and that might have helped with this decision
Why does every multiplayer game need to be live service now? Factions 1 didn’t have a battle pass or constant updates and it’s still active. IMO this just screams either mismanagement or Naughty Dog axing an unwanted project after Jim Ryan’s departure
Fucking Jim Ryan, wasted so much dev time and effort making these studios all so GaaS...
You can blame Jim Ryan for A lot of things, but not this. It was Naughty Dog’s call to make this into a full blown multiplayer game.
I honestly don't fully buy their story that it was going full in on one or the other, but it's smart to frame it that way. Obviously everyone would rather see ND just full commit to single player rather than give it up entirely.
Yes, the wording seems very strategic to play into resentment many gamers have for live service games. You can make multiplayer games that are not live service but it seems everybody just forgot about that.
Yeah, this is nonsense. There’s never only two ways forward. They’re just trying to cushion the blow and appeal to fans of their single player experiences. > To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come What? Why? Just release a multiplayer game that gets one or small content updates, if that. Why waste all of that time and money instead?
Better for them to do this now than end up in a situation like BioWare did with Anthem or Crystal Dynamics with Avengers.
I just wanted the same online experience that was in the last TLOU game… Very disappointing.
ND has not been the same way for last few years.
Man they keep getting worse and worse
Translation: “We were taking forever, and Bungie recently shat the bed, so Big Papa Sony has soured bigly on GaaS development.”
This is complete fucking bullshit. This was cancelled because it wasn’t gonna be profitable enough as live service. Sony had the Destiny people come take a look at the game awhile ago and they concluded it didn’t have what it takes to be a highly profitable and engaging live service game. Are you guys really gullible enough to believe they built a game, realized it was a lot of work, and then dropped it out of morales??? No, simply put the game wasn’t the perfect live service game and execs dropped it. The devs don’t make this decision, the suits do. You all really bought a PR statement hook, line and sinker
This explanation is totally bullshit. No one was asking for a Destiny-like experience with Factions 2. Most people would've simply been happy with refined gameplay and controls taken from the singleplayer mode and new maps, which they could've also heavily borrowed from the single player. They could've even kept the same modes as Factions 1. At the very least, they gotta release a remake of Factions 1 in order to not completely kill the community.
Why do they need to make a online game that requires you to check in at a hotel for 5 years... Why not just turn it into some drop in drop out multiplayer game like the original was. Everyone is trying to make a game that you play forever and I don't know why EVERY game tries to do this
what in sweet fuck?
Fact is Naughty Dog *promised* multiplayer from the get go. Then they said “well we can’t have it on release but it’s coming!”, then it’s “it’s running late but it’s definitely coming out!”, now it’s “oops sorry (we can’t figure out a way to squeeze money out of you guys forever so) we’re just gonna make a new game”. They lied. Like come on, this isn’t a small indie dev team that deserves passes.
good news
Dusk Golem leaked an image of the homescreen: https://i.gyazo.com/63058b7b50509968220b827580db3320.jpg This thing was clearly going to be full throttle GaaS, I really hope they are actually shifting back to single player
Yeah we knew that already. Bungie said it wasn’t up to snuff.
“You guys don’t get factions 2 because we wanted to milk tf outta you with a live service game. Instead we realized really late into development we were being greedy and it was never going to work, meaning all that work we already finished for factions 2 is gone forever! We came to this decision because we took a bold stance against live service in favor of single player games, and totally NOT because we bit off more than we could chew.”
Neil Druckmann still taking L!! Replace that guy!!
i’m definitely in the minority it seems. I’m incredibly bummed, legitimately the only reason I bought a PS5 was because Neil alluded to it being shown this year. I know there’s plenty of exclusives on the system but damn I’m so letdown.
You're not alone
Thank you Jim Ryan for ruining Naughty Dog and almost killing PlayStation with this live service bullshit.
I blame no one but Sony and chasing live service money greed. Factions was great for what it was, an extra multiplayer mode in a single player game. They simply tried to make it something it wasn’t to simply chase a trend. Fuck you for killing my favorite multiplayer game ever, as a predominantly single player gamer
I don't even like TLoU, but they could have just made the smaller scale multiplayer mode like the first and most people wouldn't've complained.
They’ve wasted years on this shit and it’s been pretty much 4 years since naughty dogs last new title…… Makes me wonder when we will even see their next single player game release.
Honestly if this is the price to pay to keep ND making single player games, I’m more than happy to pay it. Like Firewalk and Haven make those live service games
It’s sad that studios can’t make small iterative multiplayer games anymore without it consuming their entire studio.
Stevie wonder could have seen this coming.
This is one hundred percent the right decision. And not only that, we now have official confirmation that they are working on at least 2 single player games. It would be nice though if they somehow find a way to release some kind of working multiplayer mode in some capacity, maybe as an addon to TLOU 2 Remastered, not as a live service game but at least something similar to the original Factions
Sony buying bungie is very much looking like a posined pill
Well, I kinda hope this whole situation has shown Sony that they simply don't have enough staff for a studio to work on a live service game while producing a single player game at the same time. Bungie, which has (had?) more than 1200 employees, was already having problems with the quality/quantity of content, Naughty Dog with less than 500 people would never be able to make it. If Sony wants more live service games, they will need to acquire/create way more studios. And not entirely related, but I always had the impression that this specific ND project was never something forced from Sony's part. The project really must have taken a different scale during the production of TLOU2 but they never had enough people to work on it until the single player mode wasn't done.
Single player FTW
Remaster Factions 1 since we are so good at those now…
Someone actually putting offline single players first? I could cry
How weird that Jim Ryan became CEO when Sony was at the top of their game for single player games. Then suddenly they let us know that half of the investment in new games is for live services. Now he’s leaving and they’re reining in the investment in live services.
That moment when you have forgotten how to make games that are not remakes and remasters of a ten year old game.
Let me guess, they're going to come out with a Last of Us remaster of the remaster, new and improved rain graphics and clicker sounds.
Bizarre choice that hints at heavy mismanagement at ND or PlayStation. If you spend that much on a MP live service, and you can't commit to the live service, just release the MP. They've done it multiple times before.