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Naughty Dog Announces Development Delay on TLoU MP (MP Dev Team 'Significantly Scaled Down,' Bloomberg Reports)

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
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"Fix" in action:


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I KID I KID
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Brother... the evidence is in YOUR post.

They release a mainline entry every four years, and have spent the majority of their time and allocated the majority of their dev team on Factions, which still doesn't even have a rough date or release year.

To think they also have a fully fledged new SP title almost ready when they can't even get Factions out is utterly fanciful.
That simply isn’t true though.

This MP game was always a smaller side team, it was never the majority of their studio working on it.

Neil Druckmann isn’t even involved with it any any matter ffs. That alone tells you, it’s a side project for the studio.

Neil will get the lions share of the studio to work on his single player game. Which you can safely assume started development well over 2 years ago.

And they are putting even more people on it now, and scaling down the Factions 2 team even more.



This is Naughty Dog man. They aren’t some hack dev that takes 10 years to make a game lol.

They are one of the most proficient studios in the industry. Right up there with insomniac
 
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BoxFresh123

Member
"Sony has invested heavily in “games as a service,” or video games designed to be monetized beyond their initial sales through ongoing purchases. As part of that push it asked another of its video-game studios, Seattle-based Bungie, to evaluate the games across its portfolio. Bungie raised questions about the The Last of Us multiplayer project’s ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time, which led to the reassessment."

Bungie told them to fix their shit
 

DonJorginho

Banned
That simply isn’t true though.

This MP game was always a smaller side team, it was never the majority of their studio on it.

Neil isn’t even involved with it any any matter ffs. And he will get the lions share of the studio to work on his single player game. Which you can safely assume started development well over 2 years ago.

And they are putting even more people on it now, and scaling down the Factions 2 team even more.



This is Naughty Dog man. They aren’t some hack dev that takes 10 years to make a game lol.

They are one of the most proficient studios in the industry. Right up there with insomniac

So it's in development hell, either way it's not a good look and I don't know how you can defend that, no-one is denying their quality, but goddamn they're poorly managed.
 
I constantly see certain members on here praising The Last of Us 2 and how smart it was to spinoff Factions as it's own thing, when in reality it probably destroyed the core of the studio, remember, 70% turnover rate during TLoU2 development, and Factions is apparently in development hell now. The talent simply left the studio.
Have you any proof that the talent left the studios?
If not stop sucking storys out of your thumb......
 
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Umbasaborne

Banned
That simply isn’t true though.

This MP game was always a smaller side team, it was never the majority of their studio working on it.

Neil Druckmann isn’t even involved with it any any matter ffs. That alone tells you, it’s a side project for the studio.

Neil will get the lions share of the studio to work on his single player game. Which you can safely assume started development well over 2 years ago.

And they are putting even more people on it now, and scaling down the Factions 2 team even more.



This is Naughty Dog man. They aren’t some hack dev that takes 10 years to make a game lol.

They are one of the most proficient studios in the industry. Right up there with insomniac

Guess what…its also going to take them ten years to make this next game. My guess was they wanted factions to hold them over, like gta online held over rockstar til gta 6 and red dead 2, guess thats not happening now
 
I've honestly lost interest in Factions now.

Their focus will be on Part 3 now so they can get it out in time for S4 of the show assuming S2+3 will be based on Part 2.
 
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"Sony has invested heavily in “games as a service,” or video games designed to be monetized beyond their initial sales through ongoing purchases. As part of that push it asked another of its video-game studios, Seattle-based Bungie, to evaluate the games across its portfolio. Bungie raised questions about the The Last of Us multiplayer project’s ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time, which led to the reassessment."

Bungie told them to fix their shit

TBF that's the hardest thing with Multiplayer titles. Getting and keeping a player base is near impossible

Very few titles manage it and there is little guarantee of success on that side of the business.

The article really doesn't sound like development hell or the game being in a bad state. The problem I suppose is its probably a great game but with GAAS you are aiming to create something that people play for years not weeks or months.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Guess what…it’s also going to take them ten years to make this next game. My guess was they wanted factions to hold them over, like gta online held over rockstar til gta 6 and red dead 2, guess thats not happening now
It will not take them 10 years. Lmao. Trolling?
 

Portugeezer

Member
Who bought TLOU2 expecting to see wait 4 years for multiplayer?

Stop with the excuses, nobody asked about your singleplayer game, we want to know about Factions MP.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I think it's more your rep.
Trust me dude. If I and others started personally insulting everyone on this board who has a reputation, this place would become a fucking shithole. We should discuss the content of the post. Nothing I said was out the ordinary, just pure common sense and logic.

They've never been an efficient studio, let's be honest. Insomniac is a different beast. They still spent 5 years on Uncharted 4, killed Amy Henning, and destroyed Bruce Straley shortly after. Spent 6 years on The Last of Us Part II. DLCs and remasters (externally handled if recall correctly) between. All with a studio capacity of 500+ staff.

They have had issues because they have never been a two team studio, but the numbers dont lie.

U2 to U3 - 2 years
U3 to TLOU - 2 years
TLOU to U4 - 3 years
U4 to ULL - 1 year
ULL to TLOU2 - under 3 years despite the hack and pandemic affecting shipment of the game delaying it by another month.

2-3 years is really efficient all things considered.

Something changed after 2020. They shouldve begun development on TLOU3 right away but they took over someone else's remake project. Why? Surely they shouldve had their own game lined up. Factions had a separate team that got help from Sony Bend for a while, but what happened to the main TLOU2 team? Why didnt they begun immediately working on their next game?

Looks like Neil went out to do his tv show around that time. I read an article about how he was summoned back to LA from Canada in the middle of shooting the show sometime in 2022 to work on the game. If he wants to go then let him go. Let someone else make video games.
 
I think TLOU GAAS could work as an extraction shooter 🤔

Get in, get supplies for your camp. Leave before you get hit by other players or clicked on by a clicker haha

Anyway... Delayed 🙂 it's fine. Rather delay it or get cooking on something else (single player hopefully) instead of releasing something not up to ND's pedigree
 

MagnesD3

Member
They are. In fact this stament would indicates they are working on atleast 3 games.

If they where to only make one single player game only they would simply have less employees like they did in the past.

It would be unlikely to speed up development they'd just make less stuff.

The studio size has expanded massively in recent years so it only makes sense to work on multiple projects
Well if I'd like another single player game made then, I still would love to see naughty dog try to make a smaller 3d platformer on the side, I would have preferred that much more than an unnecessary LoU1 remake.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Trust me dude. If I and others started personally insulting everyone on this board who has a reputation, this place would become a fucking shithole. We should discuss the content of the post. Nothing I said was out the ordinary, just pure common sense and logic.
I don't disagree, brother. I just think The Contrarian rep tends to follow, but he also did say the joke worked better with your quote. He was just being cheeky.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
The team working on the game was scaled back after a recent evaluation, said the people, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. A small group remains on the project while the company reevaluates the direction. While the game has not been canceled, many of its developers have been moved to other projects.
Following requests for comment from Bloomberg News, Naughty Dog, the Sony subsidiary working on the project, put out a statement on Twitter saying that "we've realized what's best for the game is to give it more time."
Naughty Dog has been developing the multiplayer title for at least four years. It started as a complementary mode to The Last of Us: Part II, the single-player game released in 2020, but the creators grew ambitious and decided to make it into its own game, Naughty Dog said.

Sony has invested heavily in "games as a service," or video games designed to be monetized beyond their initial sales through ongoing purchases. As part of that push it asked another of its video-game studios, Seattle-based Bungie, to evaluate the games across its portfolio. Bungie raised questions about the The Last of Us multiplayer project's ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time, which led to the reassessment.
 
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skit_data

Member
Well, I guess that's why they weren't included in the showcase. Sad to hear but I'd rather have the game ready and finished than half assed.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
I constantly see certain members on here praising The Last of Us 2 and how smart it was to spinoff Factions as it's own thing, when in reality it probably destroyed the core of the studio, remember, 70% turnover rate during TLoU2 development, and Factions is apparently in development hell now. The talent simply left the studio.

Because the original Last of Us Multiplayer was popular and it wasn't a bad move to make it a standalone game. Devs were actually pulled from the multiplayer project to finish the game, so your statement is very inaccurate. People leaving the studio was due to crunch, not the multiplayer project.
 

Pelta88

Member
Read between the lines and it's basically a delay, remember we were meant to SEE the game this summer.

Looks like that ain't happening now, sounds like a delay to me.

Can I get a link to back up these claims? I've never seen an announcement for a gameplay demo.

We know they're working on Factions > < That haven't shown me Factions so it's a delay... Because I said so.

I'm prepared to stand corrected if you can give me a source to back up ANY of your claims.
 
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Draugoth

Gold Member






Sony Group Corp. has slowed down development on an upcoming multiplayer game in its long-running The Last of Us video game series as the creators reassess its quality and long-term viability, according to four people familiar with the project.

The team working on the game was scaled back after a recent evaluation, said the people, who asked not to be named because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. A small group remains on the project while the company reevaluates the direction. While the game has not been canceled, many of its developers have been moved to other projects.

Following requests for comment from Bloomberg News, Naughty Dog, the Sony subsidiary working on the project, put out a statement on Twitter saying that "we've realized what's best for the game is to give it more time."

The Last of Us franchise began as a video game in 2013, and the various releases have sold more than 37 million units as of December, according to Sony. It has since grown into a larger cultural phenomenon thanks to HBO's TV adaptation, which became one of this year's biggest hits. The show, which tells emotional stories about humans surviving in a post-apocalyptic world, posted strong viewership numbers.

Naughty Dog has been developing the multiplayer title for at least four years. It started as a complementary mode to The Last of Us: Part II, the single-player game released in 2020, but the creators grew ambitious and decided to make it into its own game, Naughty Dog said.


Sony has invested heavily in "games as a service," or video games designed to be monetized beyond their initial sales through ongoing purchases. As part of that push it asked another of its video-game studios, Seattle-based Bungie, to evaluate the games across its portfolio. Bungie raised questions about the The Last of Us multiplayer project's ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time, which led to the reassessment.

Single and multiplayer games generally require different skillsets to develop. Although Naughty Dog has found some success with multiplayer modes in some of its titles, the company is primarily known for developing single-player hits. Still, fans were excited for the project and raised questions after it was not present at a PlayStation video game showcase this week.
 
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DonJorginho

Banned
Can I get a link to back up these claims? I've never seen an announcement for a gameplay demo.

We know they're working on Factions > < That haven't shown me Factions so it's a delay... Because I said so.

I'm prepared to stand corrected if you can give me a source to back up ANY of your claims.
If you remember they appeared at the Keighley show thing with concept art and said they would show more in the summer, this pr post along with the Bloomberg story paints a different picture.
 

Flutta

Banned
PlayStation studios in shambles.

Well see you guys next gen.. or not. Doesn't really matter.


happy mario balotelli GIF by Olympique de Marseille
 
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What a bad few weeks for Sony. One studio closed, a partner's project cancelled followed by layoffs at the studio, a disappointing conference, and now Factions in shambles. It's funny how the bad news just kinda shifts from publisher to publisher. That said, from a GaaS standpoint, I have to assume Marathon is going to be great. The reaction to even a CG trailer probably makes the other stuff easier to take for Sony.
 
I promise you their next game will be out much closer to 2030 than 2020
Yup we don't even know what their next game is (obviously it will be TLOU Part 3) and we're 3 and a half years into the decade or 3 years since Part 2. Their next game is not coming out any sooner than 2027 unless they rush it out the door.
 
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