Naughty Dog will release on January 19. Ahead of the game’s release, the developer has detailed how fans who own the game on PlayStation 4 can get their hands on the upgraded version for a big discount.
Naughty Dog Likely Wouldn’t Have Made The Last Of Us Online Profitable Enough To Be Worth It
18.12.2023 - 11:00 / gameranx.com / Tom Henderson / Jason Schreier / Last Of Us
An insider has broken down some details on why Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us Online.
Last week, Naughty Dog revealed that they had cancelled The Last of Us Online. They had cited the main reason being scope creep. The Last of Us Online was originally going to be an extra mode added onto The Last of Us Part II, in the same way that Factions was the multiplayer mode added to the story campaign of the original The Last of Us.
Naughty Dog got excited adding features to this mode, to the point that they realized the scope of the project became too big. They then characterized the choice to cancel the project as a choice to become a dedicated live services game developer, or to continue to make single player narrative games.
Of course, even without saying so, Naughty Dog had to deal with other factors when making this decision. Months earlier, Jason Schreier broke the story that Sony had Bungie review The Last of Us Online, and Bungie assessed that the game would not be able to keep players’ attention for very long. For these reasons, Sony made the choice to ramp down the project, months before its official cancellation.
As reported by PSU, Tom Henderson laid down the metrics that Naughty Dog would have needed to have hit to satisfy Sony:
“Think about the economics at a base level. If the whole studio needed to work on TLOU MP, that’s 400 employees. If the average salary is $50K, that’s $20M a year in salary alone.Is TLOU MP going to sell 250,000 battle passes a quarter at $20 each over multiple years to cover that base cost? I really do doubt it and they probably did too.”
Without elaborating, Tom claims that it’s doubtful Naughty Dog, as popular and successful as that studio is, could have made The Last of Us Online profitable enough to be feasible. We are not even talking about chasing Fortnite or Destiny numbers, but the bare minimum of being profitable.
What’s implied here as well is that Naughty Dog built The Last of Us Online too much, to the point that it cost too much to make. While many companies are obviously endeavoring to become the next Fortnite, they haven’t remembered how Epic actually made the title; battle royale was actually just a small mode within the game, that they slowly iterated on as they saw success.
Epic sought to make their investment in Fortnite proportional to its profit, outside of predicting how successful it could be. If the game hit its peak much earlier, Epic would likely have not kept pushing the title further.
While we can understand logically the reasons that Naughty Dog and/or Sony decided that this title could not have been successful, this argument is unlikely to keep the fans happy. As this YouTuber pointed out, there are fans of Naughty Dog’s multiplayer,
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
mmorpg.com
04.01.2024 / 23:21
Ramen VR CEO Opens Up About Major Changes Coming to Zenith: The Last City, With Pre-Alpha Signups Open
Late last year, Ramen VR announced that they will bring some major changes to Zenith: The Last City. Now, there’s a new devblog breaking down some of the changes and why they’re happening, along with a closed pre-alpha coming this weekend.
wccftech.com
17.12.2023 / 14:21
The Last of Us Online Devs Tease their Canceled Game: ‘It Was the Highlight of My Career’
The fate of The Last of Us Online hung in the balance for a long while, with mixed signals being sent from Sony and Naughty Dog. It all started before the launch of The Last of Us Part II when it was announced that there would be no Factions multiplayer mode like in the original game.
mmorpg.com
17.12.2023 / 02:07
Zenith: The Last City's Developers Discuss Vision For 2.0 Version, Announce Alpha Playtest
In a new blog published to the game’s official site, Andy Tsen, co-founder of Ramen VR, fully officially discussed the prospects of Zenith: The Last City’s 2.0 version. The blog also acknowledges that alpha playtests will be enacted soon.
polygon.com
16.12.2023 / 16:49
Naughty Dog cancels its The Last of Us multiplayer game
Naughty Dog’s planned multiplayer game set in the world of The Last of Us is no more. The studio announced Thursday that it has “made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on” what it’s been calling The Last of Us Online.
rockpapershotgun.com
16.12.2023 / 16:17
Naughty Dog cancel The Last Of Us Online while teasing new single player projects
Naughty Dog have officially stopped development of The Last Of Us Online, a multiplayer game based on their celebrated McCarthyite (no, not that McCarthy - I mean the novelist) post-apocalyptic action-adventure. Announced in the dusty days of 2018 as a multiplayer mode for The Last Of Us: Part 2, it evolved into a standalone experience with new characters and a new setting, but Sony reportedly scaled the project back earlier this year. Naughty Dog have now formally called it quits, stating that supporting a live service project such as this would have “severely impacted” future single-player game projects. Sony never locked down platforms for The Last Of Us Online, but a PC release was surely on the cards, though I would have expected the game to launch first on PlayStation, as with the original Last Of Us and Uncharted 4.
pushsquare.com
16.12.2023 / 15:19
Disney Says There's 'Still a Lot of Demand' for Knights of the Old Republic Remake | Push Square
The fate of the Knights of the Old Republic Remake remains in flux, much like the Force itself, and conflicting reports from trusted sources have recently left us contemplating a turn to the dark side. Now, a Disney executive has thrown further fuel on the flames.
gamesradar.com
15.12.2023 / 12:13
Naughty Dog confirms multiple single-player games in development following The Last Of Us Online's cancellation
The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has confirmed that more than one single-player game is in development at the studio.
gamesindustry.biz
15.12.2023 / 12:03
Naughty Dog cancels The Last Of Us Online
Naughty Dog has stopped development on The Last of Us Online.
techradar.com
15.12.2023 / 10:05
The Last of Us Online canceled as Naughty Dog didn’t want to ‘become a solely live service games studio’
Naughty Dog has confirmed that it has stopped development on its multiplayer The Last of Us title — known as The Last of Us Online — after concerns that it would impact the studio’s future single-player games.
gameranx.com
15.12.2023 / 09:07
Naughty Dog Cancels The Last Of Us Online, Citing Scope Creep
Naughty Dog has cancelled The Last Of Us Online.
gadgets.ndtv.com
15.12.2023 / 08:11
The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Has Been Cancelled, Naughty Dog Confirms
The Last of Us multiplayer game has been cancelled. In a blog post, developer Naughty Dog confirmed that the development on the promised online experience within the post-apocalyptic universe, which it was calling ‘The Last of Us Online,' has been stopped. The astonishing news comes just a month after game director Vinit Agarwal assured fans that the project was still happening despite the numerous reported setbacks, including the laying off of 25 employees. One can't simply release a live-service game into the wild and expect it to thrive. It desperately needs post-launch content for years to come, indirectly impacting a studio which is otherwise known for creating memorable single-player narratives.