Support NeoGAF

[Hawking Radiation]

Who let the dogs out?

A Naughty Dog pouring everything into single player games is the Naughty Dog I fell in love with having delivered epics like The Last Of Us and Uncharted.

This is EXCELLENT NEWS!!!

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

People who like Last of us don't care about playing online.

People who like playing online don't care about Last of Us

Simple as, any hope this ip could be anything more than single player was burned off after the first game.

 

[Punished Miku]

Worked for redfall.

Speaking of Redfall, I'd much rather have an ex-GAAS salvaged into single player / co-op but rough around the edges like Redfall than just 100% canceled and all you'll ever see is a drawing. They should've put this out on PS+ for free with hours of developer interviews like the Atari collection game, explaining how development issues crept up but giving people something to play. They clearly had playable content done.

 

[Hoppa]

Garbage. Well I look forward to their next actual game in 2027.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Why not passing over the project to another studio? Like Bend or Firesprite or w/e.

If it really had so much potential then you don’t just bin it.

 

[hyperbertha]

What hard numbers are you working from to make this claim?

The data just isn't there.

What the fuck are you talking about? And why are you so invested in gaas? From the level of copium you go through I can only imagine you are some indie gaas developer.

 

[March Climber]

Also GAF, what stings more?

Losing Overwatch Campaign or Losing TLoU 2 PvP?

 

[Bungie]

Shame, I enjoy online experiences more.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Thank you. Felt like ND canceled itself out with this going on so long and not showing a thing.

Get back to what you do.

 

[ikbalCO]

Good riddance i guess.

Its great that they are focusing what they are great at but one thing i dont understand is why did it have to be so big and ambitious. Couldnt it just be a fun experience that came with tlou p2 or the p2 remaster? Why dont they just polish it and release it with their upcoming game as an onlinr mode or something?

 

[Bartski]

 

[Lupin25]

The project grew so big that almost the entire studio would’ve needed to focus on it.

This would’ve came at the expense of all their SP games. Good decision by Neil & Jim to end this now while the perception of GaaS is still volatile.

It all makes sense, Bungie is a huge dev as well and they’re only making one live service at a time.
GaaS is simply a money sink.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Just making room for Halo Infinite and Starfield on the PS5

 

[Embearded]

I wanted to try it but i prefer single player games. Not everyone has to work on multiplayer games or even have multiplayer modes included.

They should continue doing what they do best and i am pretty sure their fans will be pleased.

 

[adamsapple]

Just making room for Halo Infinite and Starfield on the PS5

Canceling their first party games to make room for Xbox first party content?

Didn't realize it was that bad

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Who let the dogs out?

A Naughty Dog pouring everything into single player games is the Naughty Dog I fell in love with having delivered epics like The Last Of Us and Uncharted.

This is EXCELLENT NEWS!!!

I couldn't have said it better myself. This is excellent news to me. I fell in love with ND games for their single player games not multiplayer. Factions never hit with me when I played it and I never understood the hype. I'm very happy they are back to focusing all their efforts on the masterpiece single player games. Sucks it took them long to realize this wasn't going anywhere. I wish they had realized it sooner so that we could get their next projects quicker.

 

[Faust]

Disappointing. The MP component was the only thing I enjoyed from this series.

 

[TheAmazingSpiderMan]

Hilarious, years wasted on this and they only realised now that a GAAS game, it would need post launch content continuously. Are they really that naive?

And also mentioning 2 single player games being worked on, we 100% now one is the last of us 3 I’m sure of it, that won’t come out till end of ps5s life cycle and the supposed 2nd game won’t probably even launch on ps5, unless they do these back to back realises.

Thank God for insomniac,

 

[CrimsonSquall]

People who like Last of us don't care about playing online.

People who like playing online don't care about Last of Us

Simple as, any hope this ip could be anything more than single player was burned off after the first game.

Sorry bud but the world doesnt revolve around you. I have friends to this day that still beg me to get on TLOU remastered factions

 

[zedinen]

What a colossal waste of time.

Nothing is wasted.

A narrative gets pushed by certain people that want certain things to be true.

"GAAS is a bad bet, in part, because these games require huge resources just to keep afloat."

That's complete fabrication and is likely only true for certain GAAS games. It's also a sign that the person saying it doesn't see a difference in content creation between games like Destiny 2 and League of Legends.

GAAS games obviously vary wildly in what is required out of their post launch teams.

Totoki has already made his mind up: nothing will change.

Japan plays F2P titles

AAA games are expensive to make and have no guarantees of return on investment (TOLU 2 and Forbidden West sold less than their predecessors)

Sony wants to become less reliant on 3rd party games

A good reason to get angry.

Will Yoshida and Totoki invest Jim Ryan's profits in PlayStation ? Good luck.

 

[Big Baller]

They waited for Jim to retire.

 

[Kurimao]

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

I'll repeat what I said months ago in another thread, Sony's 1st party studios need to stick to their bread and butter: staunchly single player games of the highest quality, period. ND, Insomniac, SSM, Bend, Bluepoint, Housemarque, Sucker Punch should all have projects in the pipeline that deliver what we've come to expect from these studios. Newer studios like Haven and Firesprite? THAT'S where PlayStation can experiment, just keep the crown jewels far away from the GaaS garbage.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Fuck. This was like the only multiplayer I was looking forward to.

They did not have to reinvent the wheel. People just wanted Factions as a side mode, could have just been remade with updated graphics.

I expect a bit better output now though. Enough with the remasters and remakes.

This is why I think they should've just released it with TLOU2, the way they did with TLOU1.

It really was that simple.

Although I was looking forward to Factions 2, I don't really care about it being cancelled.
Hopefully they learned from it and don't mess up next time.

 

[VulcanRaven]

They should just trust that they have a good multiplayer game and release it.

 

[ahtlas7]

If they couldn’t make it fun and exciting then this is for the best.

 

[sigmaZ]

 

[Skitso]

This kind of self-criticism is a hallmark of a well managed, high quality studio.

Arkane Austin for example wasn't able (or aware enough) to pull the plug from Redfall and they wasted years and tens of millions because of it.

 

[pqueue]

This kind of self-criticism is a hallmark of a well managed, high quality studio.

Arkane Austin for example wasn't able (or aware enough) to pull the plug from Redfall and they wasted years and tens of millions because of it.

right.... likely 5+ years in development alongside and after TLOU, and yes, likely tens of millions in labor/development if they had at least 20+ people working on it.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

This kind of self-criticism is a hallmark of a well managed, high quality studio.

Arkane Austin for example wasn't able (or aware enough) to pull the plug from Redfall and they wasted years and tens of millions because of it.

They should've cancelled PC version of TLOU Remake as well.

 

[Banjo64]

Laughable. ND are a shell. The studio that made U1-3 and TLoU are no more.

 

[Tomi]

Single player games is the FUTURE
Remember that guys, and i mean High Quality sp games!

 

[Aces High]

The explanation makes no sense to me.

ND's purpose is to make money for Sony. If TLOU Online had the chance to be a great commercial success, putting all studio resources behind the project is not a bad thing at all. It's the correct business decision.

That's as if Rockstar said, yeah we cancel GTA5 online development and give up on all the billions and billions of revenue because deep down in our hearts we just want to make singleplayer games. That's not how things work in real life

 

[Kikorin]

Or you can, you know, release a fun multiplayer experience like in the good old days, just because is fun, leaving the gambling and addiction part out of it.

You already wasted years on this anyway. But at least from now on they'll can go back to do what they are good at.

 

[midnightAI]

Laughable. ND are a shell. The studio that made U1-3 and TLoU are no more.

Except they made Uncharted 4 which is better than 1 and 3, and TLoU2 which is better than TLoU.

And we haven't seen their next game yet (we hadn't even seen this GaaS game either)

So are you upset that this GaaS game isn't coming out?

 

[RayBoy]

 

[Banjo64]

Except they made Uncharted 4 which is better than 1 and 3, and TLoU2 which is better than TLoU.

And we haven't seen their next game yet (we hadn't even seen this GaaS game either)

Judging by their current trajectory with U4 followed by TLoU 2 (which was worse) alongside their evident poor decision making, this is nothing to be excited about.

So are you upset that this GaaS game isn't coming out?

I’m upset that ND can’t make a good decision and haven’t made a game on par with their PS3 content (Lost Legacy aside).

 

[Melee Attack]

The explanation makes no sense to me.

ND's purpose is to make money for Sony. If TLOU Online had the chance to be a great commercial success, putting all studio resources behind the project is not a bad thing at all. It's the correct business decision.

That's as if Rockstar said, yeah we cancel GTA5 online development and give up on all the billions and billions of revenue because deep down in our hearts we just want to make singleplayer games. That's not how things work in real life

Apparently ND just proved you wrong

 

[StealthGoblin]

Scope creep. Understandable. Looks like the project got out of control.

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

Hey DForce , everything still typical and going as planned with this 5+ year multiplayer project?

But nice money waste ND and Sony, keep wasting more?

Hey DForce ... I await your complete and utter multi year insistence that the TLOU Multiplayer development of 5+ years for a game mode that came out day 1 for Part 1 is perfectly normal with no announcements in sight and employees quitting post 2 launch constantly.

Now would be the ideal time to insist that I think. Or maybe some sort of admission of being completely wrong, up to you.

 

[Luipadre]

See you on PS6 i guess... What a shame

 

[Bartski]

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.

Weren't they like 800+ people strong gearing up for exactly that?

Not to become a "solely live service game studio" but to have a team updating TLOU:O while everyone else is working on single player games?

I smell BS. Salvaging bits of it into a smaller MP pve/pvp mode for Part2, aka exactly what everyone wanted, woud be the perfect conclusion.

Just like they salvaged what they could from the initial MP mode for No Return.

Meybe we'll learn more about this as things start leaking.

 

[mckmas8808]

All these years wasted, meh. The remaster/remake didn't even come with the first game's multiplayer.

Pure waste of time. Thanks Jim Ryan. Good riddance!

 

[Eiknarf]

that announcement seems like it would have been the perfect time to at least give some good news with the bad news: let the fans know what new single player games they’re working on. Soften the blow.

 

[TheTony316]

Good ridance

 

[Negotiator101]

What an absolute shit show, 5 years wasted and 3 years into a new generation and not one next gen reveal from ND (Top 3 developer around for SP games). At least Ryan had the decency to hand in his resignation after that disaster of a showcase

 

[midnightAI]

Judging by their current trajectory with U4 followed by TLoU 2 (which was worse) alongside their evident poor decision making, this is nothing to be excited about.


I’m upset that ND can’t make a good decision and haven’t made a game on par with their PS3 content (Lost Legacy aside).

Many people love those games, I get that the story of TLoU2 is divisive, but as an actual game it's hard to argue that it's not better, pretty much every gameplay mechanic has been improved upon, graphics, animation, sound, all better. Same goes for U4.

But anyway, opinions and all that, but to say ND is just a shell of what it was is laughable in my opinion.

 

[Skitso]

right.... likely 5+ years in development alongside and after TLOU, and yes, likely tens of millions in labor/development if they had at least 20+ people working on it.

Sure, but to be able to resist to release things that are not up to a high enough standard is IMO commendable

 

[Negotiator101]

that announcement seems like it would have been the perfect time to at least give some good news with the bad news: let the fans know what new single player games they’re working on. Soften the blow.

You think maybe they haven't got anything of real substance to show because of this Fractions game they were forced to turn into a standalone title?

 

[midnightAI]

Weren't they like 800+ people strong gearing up for exactly that?

Not to become a "solely live service game studio" but to have a team updating TLOU:O while everyone else is working on single player games?

I smell BS. Salvaging bits of it into a smaller MP pve/pvp mode for Part2, aka exactly what everyone wanted, woud be the perfect conclusion.

Just like they salvaged what they could from the initial MP mode for No Return.

Meybe we'll learn more about this as things start leaking.

No? They have around 400-500 staff.