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Naughty Dog still working on TLoU Multiplayer - will give the team time to realise their ambition

Well, it certainly sounds like this is at least a year away, maybe two.

Do people really care that much about multiplayer for the last of us??
 

HTK

Banned
I loved TLOU Factions, I would play SURVIVOR all the time. I even played some earlier this year.

Everything about TLOU, the crafting, hit detection, armor system, clickers, mood/setting, lends itself for a Battle Royale with AI clickers. This has so much potential and if that's the direction they're headed, please take your time and hit it out of the park.
 

Business

Member
UC2-4 didn't have long legs, to say very politely, whereas TLoU while indeed stick for longer than any UC title before, wasn't a smash hit either, nothing industry shaking. It has it's dedicated die-hard fanbase like all games do, but that's about it. And Factions was a MP mode that was just thrown there into the game, whereas F2 seems like a dedicated, standalone project that takes even longer to develop than the SP campaign, so I really expect it to perform much better than for example Grounded with 5M userbase or SoT with 15M, otherwise it'll be nothing but a wasted time and money.

Yes you bet it did stick for longer :messenger_tears_of_joy: ... It's fair enough if you didn't like it or thought it didn't set the world on fire, but to say it died in 1 or 2 months is outrageous and plain wrong, I have no idea where you got that from. The game had a very healthy online community for years both on PS3 and PS4, it was easy to find games with both plenty of newbies and veterans for yeah... years.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
If it’s truly a standalone project then:
  • Online cinematic multiplayer story for the main game.
  • To build upon Factions II, an open-world battle royale
  • PVP, team death match, or a multiplayer horde mode similar to World War Z.

I’m presuming and predicting the game to drop Spring 2023 with next year being so stacked. If not for the pandemic, 2022 would’ve probably been the goal.

Edit: With as big as ND is appearing to grow, I’d predict a main team working on a new IP, with the standalone MP title and The Last of Us Remake being lesser, but still, clearly important projects.

Since TLOU2 wrapped up just a little more than a year ago and a remake (likely) is on the way (to go along with TV adaptation), they’d probably want to allow the universe of TLOU to breath a bit, at least until the end of the gen.
I would use the team making remakes or remasters as the team that does core R&D with future and bleeding edge tech on a safer concept (think like Intel’s old tick tock model).
 
So it seems. Personally I wish that little message in the OP was about the remake instead.
Same. I played mp a couple years ago, it was fine but it has nothing to do with the last of us in my opinion.

I'll rather they focus on developing new game or expansion to TLOU II than this.
 

deathsaber

Member
Yeah, this is totally going to be out in another year or so, packaged as The Last of Us 2 remastered/directors cut, etc. for $69.99. Probably as close to the HBO show launch as they can manage (prob late 2022).

That said, i hope this isn't the only ND project and that we soon hear about whatever is really next, because we are really due for an announcement (and it better not *just* be that fucking TLOU 1 remake)
 

Godot25

Banned
-They are not making a TV show. Only their co-director, director and writer co-wrote it and will direct at least one episode, other people is making the TV show.
-The remake is being made by the Sony Visual Arts Service Group team that did open a 2nd Sony studio in San Diego.
-The remaster is being made by Iron Galaxy.
Neil is pretty much involved in making of TV show. Not saying that many people from ND are involved but quite a few for sure
Remake is not being made by VASG. They wanted to do a remake, but Sony shut their project down and moved it straight into to Naughty Dog. So ND is making a remake, not VASG. Btw, head of VASG then left and found a new studio (That's No Moon).
Remaster of Uncharted 4 on PC is being made by Iron Galaxy. PS5 version is being made by Naughty Dog.
Bend helped with Factions for TLOU2 because Sony cancelled their pitch for Days Gone 2. But now they are working on new IP and are not helping ND anymore.

So yeah. ND is working on remake, remaster and TV Show. And they are researching ideas for new games. That's confirmed by both Neil and Wells.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Its going to be an open world PVP/battle royale type of game with hub base system in Destiny.

Seems to be big.

My assumption anyway.
Yeah I assume at this point they are building something like Destiny.

There's gonna be PvP modes, some PvE co-op stuff, and maybe even some story missions or raids etc. Wouldn't shock me to see a battle royale mode too. Even Troy Baker himself even said he would love an online co-op TLOU open world game to go around and hunt infected with a few friends.

Naughty Dog shipped Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, TLOU, Uncharted 4, and Lost Legacy with PvP multiplayer modes. If TLOU2 was just going to have a similar simple PvP TDM mode, it would be out by now and would have just been shipped on day 1 or as post-launch free DLC.
 

yurinka

Member
Neil is pretty much involved in making of TV show.
They are hundreds of people at ND and Neil is now a co-president, so I assume after TLOU2 he will be less invested in game development outside writing. After TLOU2 he also wrote a draft of the TLOU3 story just in case they decide to develop TLOU3 somewhere in the future.

Maybe he stops directing and instead he overviews their future games and co-writes their story. They always promoted people to game directors in their recent games and TLOU2 even featured 3 game directors, so I assume Neil was training them to let them direct their future games.

Not saying that many people from ND are involved but quite a few for sure
Remake is not being made by VASG. They wanted to do a remake, but Sony shut their project down and moved it straight into to Naughty Dog. So ND is making a remake, not VASG. Btw, head of VASG then left and found a new studio (That's No Moon).
Yes, the remake is being made by VASG people and if it exists is because of them. It was their idea and they pitched it.

Part of VASG, including their boss Mumbauer, created that secret 2nd Sony studio in San Diego because they wanted to make their own projects instead of working always as a support team. First they uncessfully pitched to make CG movies or TV shows of the main Sony IPs, and Sony told them to focus on doing games.

Then they though about making their own games with themselves as lead studio instead of being a support team, and thought that it was easier to get greenlighted a remake because requires less work and it's mostly from art, the part where they excel. They did that also to reuse assets they made to pitch an Uncharted movie/tv show into an Uncharted 1 (game, playable) remake.

But they saw it required a ton of game design and programming work to update properly such an old game, and since VASG is focused only in art and animation, then decided to remake a more recent, less outdated -in terms of gameplay and game design- game. They thought on a TLOU1 remake with the idea of bundling it with the TLOU2 PS5 version (I assume in a TLOU2 Director's Cut or Morales Ultimate Edition fashion).

It got greenlighted and they started to work on it themselves as the lead studio, with ND obviously providing the source TLOU1 material and some support. Time after that, Hermen Hulst gets promoted in 2019 to his current position. He sees the remake, doesn't like it and thinks they were spending too much budget on it. So he asks them to switch the roles of their roles to their original ones (ND as lead studio and the San Diego VASG guys to art & animation support) to complete it (I assume) faster an better.

Mumbauer and a few more left Sony to work on his original vision of making CG movies and tv shows of top gaming IPs reusing the game assets made for cinematics. Zenimax did open a studio in the San Diego area and since the only main gamedev studios around there were these two Sony ones, they tried to aggresively hire many people from both so Zenimax hired some people working in the remake.

Bend helped with Factions for TLOU2 because Sony cancelled their pitch for Days Gone 2. But now they are working on new IP and are not helping ND anymore.
Bend helped ND with Factions and the Uncharted spin-off because Bend always support ND and ND always support Bend when they have free people who completed the work in their game and won't have nothing to do until their next game months or even years later. According to their bosses the studios have a very good relationship and they did it for decades.

So as Bend's keep completing their job in Days Gone, until their next Bend game reached the state where they could move there they did help ND projects (the TLOU MP game and an Uncharted spin-off). Bend pitched Sony to make Days Gone 2 as their next project and didn't get greenlighted (who knows, maybe Sony was already working on a lot of sequels and prefered to keep Days Gone 2 for later and make a new IP instead). After that they pitched Sony a new IP and it got greenlighted and they started working on it, so Bend's workers started to move to work on that new IP when it made sense.

Remaster of Uncharted 4 on PC is being made by Iron Galaxy. PS5 version is being made by Naughty Dog.
So yeah. ND is working on remake, remaster and TV Show. And they are researching ideas for new games. That's confirmed by both Neil and Wells.
Out of hundreds of ND people, only Neil is working in the TV show. Looking at comparision videos, the 'remaster' in console is barely the same games recompiled for PS5 (so pretty likely getting higher FPS, resolution/detail and loading times just because of that) with a few minor changes in lighting, the big work there are the PC ports. And being PS4 and PS5 BC, most of their work on the PS5 versions may have been to implement the new PS5 features like the DualSense stuff.

According to Mumbauer (interview with Jaffe) and Schereier Sony's 2nd San Diego team pitched the remake and was making it as the lead studio until (according to Schreier) Hermen got his current position, saw the remake and thought they were spending too much budget on it so asked the Sony San Diego VASG guys to go back to their original art & animation support role for the remake and put ND as lead studio of the two to complete it (I assume faster, better, and cheaper), I assume with people free from their TLOU2 work.

What Neil and Wells said last month is that they think we'll continue getting Uncharted, TLOU and new IP projects from them, they want both create new series and continue working on their established IPs. Neil also mentioned he wrote a draft for the main story of TLOU3 just in case they decide to develop it somewhere in the future. And yes, in addition to work in the games they have under development the studios always have ideas for future games and sometimes they make some early preproduction work with a tiny team to start shaping and prototyping them before pitching it.
 
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Maxwell Jacob Friedman

leads to fear. Fear leads to xbox.
So ND is working on: A tv show, A remake, an online game. All from same IP. And also a remaster.

So exciting
1522325846-jesusopti.png
they are also working on a new IP bub
 

Hezekiah

Banned
They need to hire more staff. This is getting a bit ridiculous that they still haven't finished it. Probably Sony's premier developer and they have trouble recruiting enough staff and retaining them. It's not like they are short of money to pay the extra devs.
People being put off by the numerous stories of really bad crunch?

But yeah they should be further down the road than this.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
I really wonder when the next "big" Naughty Dog game will release. They are making Factions multiplayer for a long time and on top of that they are making a remake of The Last of Us. Sounds to me, that next big project will be out at the end of PS5 generation (2026?). At best...
Should be a good year then with this and the ES6 right?
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
So this is probably the most important console game in development at the moment. If this hits big, it has the potential to mitigate a lot of what PlayStations competitors are doing. Hopefully we get a look at it sometime next year.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
This has got to be 3 to 4 years in development already right? There was leaked footage of it wasn't there? It looked pretty complete if I recall.
 

EruditeHobo

Member
That said, i hope this isn't the only ND project and that we soon hear about whatever is really next, because we are really due for an announcement (and it better not *just* be that fucking TLOU 1 remake)

Are they really doing a TLOU1 remake? Is there actual evidence of this? What is the point of that... I mean, obviously besides money?

Should maybe give that another generation or so.

What did those leaked screens from ND of their new IP ever turn into? Is there a reason to expect something related to that?
 

FMX

Member
Boy let another developer do this or lord forbid the "other" guys--you guys wouldn't be so generous with your comments. Hypocrites all of you. TLOU 2 came out 15 months ago. This should have been done already. They are getting ready to sell you guys DLC/standard part of the game for 70.00 bucks and you all are going to line up like suckers.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Ambition and multiplayer? ehhhh
They could be making a game like Destiny where they not only have PvP multiplayer but also a massive PvE component where you take teams on raids and explore the world like Metal Gear Survive and Anthem.
 
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