I would have been far more excited if I didn't know pretty much every single big name release will be held back by the base PS4 in terms of scope and design, you cant design R&C style instant loading of assets into a game world if your stuck with a version using an HDD, so the World must be designed to hide those. Expect many points where characters are forced into small spaces that they must push through or elevator rides to hide load walls etc.
Its not like the games won't be good, I am sure they will build off what prior entries did, but there certainly won't be a huge leap that people are wanting from a next gen system.
Most big AAA to be released in 2022 that aren't yearly rehashes of previous games were started to be developed in 2017, 2018 or even a few cases in 2016. So in terms of scope and design they were made for PS4 because they had no idea of how PS5 was going to be and what technology was going to use.
In terms of design they were able to Rift Apart in PS4, the only difference would be a longer loading time when switching between dimensions. Big AAA games and their engines aren't made in 3 months, they need years to make them. And they need more years and to release a game or two before mastering the technology of each new generation.
U didn’t think they would release factions for free did you like the last game?
Even though it was originally part of Lou2 (based off the leak before the delay)they are gonna bundle that shit into a director$ cut and make you pay again for it
It'll be free for all existing owners for TLOU2 and have a standalone copy for purchase
I just said Factions became a much bigger deal than simply an online mode. That's it.
As I remember they said that it started as a (free) multiplayer game mode to be included in TLOU2, but -as happened with Lost Legacy, that started as a short DLC but grew and ended being a separate standalone game- the scope of the TLOU2 multiplayer mode became too big and they saw that weren't going able to have it ready to ship it with the game, so they had two options: to cut stuff from both the single player and multiplayer parts to have them ready for launch, or to don't cut them and to release the single player part alone and to leave the multiplayer part as a separate game allowing it to continue growing as much as they wanted.
They did choose the 2nd option. So it will be released as a standalone game, as they did with Lost Legacy. So they could release it as a $70 game. But being multiplayer, they may want to have the biggest userbase possible, to it may be a crossgen F2P GaaS game too.
If they are smart, they may do a mixture of what they did with U4 remeaster and with GoT:
-To release TLOUDC for PS4, PS5 and PC, that would be a bundle that includes TLOU2 (improved for PS5), TLOU1 (with no MP, remake for PS5 and PC, remastered for PS4) and a season pass and extra items for Factions 2 (would merge Factions 1 & 2 in a single game). Price: complete package $60 for PS4, $70 for PS5 & PC.
-Factions 2 would be a crossgen and crossplay F2P for PS4, PS5 and PC with microtransactions and season passes.
-$10 upgrade to get PS5 native TLOU2 SP if you have it for PS4.
-$20 upgrade to get PS4 TLOU2 DC if you have TLOU2 SP or TLOUR in PS4.
-$30 upgrade to get PS5 TLOU2 DC if you have TLOU2 SP or TLOUR in PS4.
In the same way they did with U4 remaster and the Uncharted movie, I think they'd release TLOUDC a month before the TLOU tv show in order to promote them together.
And no new PS5 1st party exclusives… We got more in year 1
They have many top tier PS5 exclusives announced for 2022 coming both from 1st party, 2nd party and 3rd party and indies. Plus many top tier multiplatform games coming like Elder Ring. They will have a gazillion top selling games in 2022. Plus very likely more that they will announce later, as could be the case of the TLOU stuff I mentioned above or the PSVR2 games.
Very likely Sony's 2022 will be the biggest year ever for a platform holder in terms of gaming division revene. Specially if covid slows down and they start to get rid of the chips shortage issue.
I don't like Jason as a person, but he have a reputation source. If he said Sony is remaking TLOUS with the help of Bend Studius, not so hard to believe to me.
Jason hates Sony -specially studios like ND- and his texts are always very biased. But what he said was:
-ND and Sony San Diego's new studio made with Sony SCEA Worldwide Studios Visual Arts department staff did work on the TLOU1 remake
-Bend did help ND in the TLOU2 MP game
-Bend and ND were working on an Uncharted spin-off that now may be cancelled as Bend moved to make a new IP
Regarding the TLOU1 remake, according to the former boss of that San Diego studio (and the Visual Arts department) Michael Mumbauer in an interview to Jaffe, it was a pitch made by their studio, who was the lead studio of the project, since they wanted to start making their own projects instead of being a support team to help with animation and cinematics as the Visual Arts department is. ND obviously was providing them the source material and overviewing the project because it's their own IP and the Visual Arts/San Diego team never released a game as lead studio.
Mumbauer first decided to make CG movies for cinema or tv of top PlayStation IPs using assets from the game's cinematics, but Sony rejected the idea and told them to focus on making games instead. Then Mumbauer thought about making their own game as lead studio, reusing the assets they made for their movie pitches, and though that since they were mostly animators it would be easier for them to make a remake, so thought about remaking Uncharted 1, but found that the gameplay was too old and required too much changes. So he (according to Jason) thought it would be easier to remake TLOU1 for PS5 to bundle it with the PS5 version of TLOU2.
Some time later, at the end of 2019 Hermen Hulst became the head of PlayStation Studios and (according to Jason) saw the TLOU1 remake, didn't like it and thought the San Diego studio was using too much budget/resources in the remake, so he asked San Diego and ND to switch their roles: for the later part of the development of this remake asked these Visual Arts group folks to go back to their original role of an animation support team (for at least this project) and put ND as lead studio with the goal of completing the remake with better budget and quality.
Later Mumbauer and some folks of the team left to create a separate company to fulfill his original vision of making cg movies using game assets. Zenimax created a new studio in the San Diego area, where there are a few game studios and started to hire super aggresively, so ended hiring some people more from both Sony San Diego studios.
Sony never release any sale data besides those initial dude. Besides, they don't even release their promisse multiplayer.
The only thing we got are the rumor about remaking the first TLOUS.
Keep your expectations in check.
We saw TLOU2 charting high (higher than GoT) in the sales ranking both from PSN and physical country specific sales rankings, specially in Sony's top market: Europe.
Naughty Dog and Druckmann said multiple times in interviews and their social media that they were going to add a multiplayer game mode to TLOU2 but its scope became too big so they decided to don't include it with the single player game at launch and to separate it from it to release it later as a separate, standalone game where it could grow and became whatever they wanted it to be.
Regarding to the TLOU1 remake rumor mentioned by Jason, Mumbauer -the former boss of the studio who pitched it and started to make it as lead studio- said that they pitched remakes as lead studio to reuse the materials they did for the pitch that wasn't greenlighted to make CG movies of Sony games. I don't remember his interview with Jaffe but I'd say he even mentioned Uncharted, lining very well with (I think Jason's) statement that their Uncharted 1 remake didn't work and decided to move to TLOU1 remake because since it was newer its gameplay was less outdated and that would be easier to get it greenlighted for (as happened with Morales) a bundle with the PS5 version of TLOU2.