The Last of Us Online has been cancelled

[mega-tallica]

1 minute ago, Akrioz said:

The stupidest thing out all of this is that they could have salvaged their work and put some kind of Factions into Part 2 Remastered and it would be great. But no, here's is roguelike because they are trendy now.

 

I'd take a rogue-like over an online live service game any day. That's an easy compromise to make when so many other games are also doing rogue-like DLC now. Forget trying to be original, let's just be like everybody else because that's the safest thing with regards to maximizing profit. 

 

Games takes so long to develop now that you almost can't even take a risk anymore. It'd potentially put you out of business if it doesn't work out because you spent 5+ years making something that finally released and failed. I think that's 100% the reason why TLoU Online was cancelled. Too much of a risk whereas you know if you put out another single-player TLoU or Uncharted it's practically guaranteed it'll succeed and do well even if a certain portion of the player base is bored of the formula and bored of those games. 

 

They also likely want to get the Part III game out before the show gets to Season 3 and putting out an online live service game would greatly hinder that timeline and would make it impossible to do that. Even still, I don't think they'll make it for 2025 in getting a new TLoU game out before the show would air Season 3 unless the show skips a year so the games could catch back up. Or the show could split Part II into 2 separate seasons but I doubt they'll do that. 

[Don_Chipotle]

I hope that they create a product out of this, not tomorrow, but someday that the people that worked in there takes the experience and maybe the builds/work and create something else.

 

I wonder what exactly was that went wrong so bad, maybe they found out MP is fun, but not enough material to last for years, or even as a e-sport , its hard to tell what was the main identity of the game, and goal as a whole.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Don_Chipotle

[The_Mighty_Ducks]

21 hours ago, mad-man-matty-22 said:

define 'woke' for me real quick, i'll wait 

I'm waiting too lol.

 

[ninja-star95]

Don't think a lot of people even gave a shit about TLOU's unnecessary and whack online MP so nothing of value was lost here. Naughty Dog needs to stop milking TLOU and make something new for a change for fuck sake. 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 hours ago, ninja-star95 said:

Don't think a lot of people even gave a shit about TLOU's unnecessary and whack online MP

 

Narrator: “They did.”

 

 

[sephiroth4424]

I was never a fan of mp modes but i got to admit that i really enjoyed the first game's mp as you don't need to be good at shooting in order to succeed.

So this is a downer

Edited December 16, 2023 by sephiroth4424

[Boni_Neto]

I left my surprised mask back home

[Jacko_the_lad]

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Narrator: “They did.”

 

 

 

"No one cared"

 

Translation: "I didn't care".

[ARIXANDRE]

Factions was great in TLoU but this is to be expected now that corporate-drone Jimbo Ryan is stepping down. 

 

I'd much rather see these studios focus on single-player projects than live services. 

[TfT_02]

Good news! I prefer Naughty Dog making single player games over an online game. Their single player story telling is top tier, would be a shame if they had to stop in order to support some online service type game. 

[Solid-Fisch]

A bit disappointing. Factions is the only multiplayer by NaughtyDog that I kinda like, while I never got used to all the Uncharted multiplayers. Still I believe they never were good a creating multiplayers, they were always way better in creating singleplayer experiences. So in the end this cancelation probably is rather good news somehow.

[ZombiJoel_Tlou3]

Good! More single players please!

[mariosF94]

[pinkrobot_pb]

Quote

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

Why though. Does every multiplayer game need to be a live service game now? If you put out a fun and well balanced multiplayer game within the TLOU franchise, that game is going to get played. You could do other stuff for at least a year before you would need to launch a couple of new maps, some skins and maybe a couple of weapons. And let's face it, you only need one or two mappers and a modeler for that for a month or two.

 

The truth is probably that with Ryan gone, they were able to ditch this live service thing that nobody at the studio was actually wanting to make, but were told to work on by the person company that owns them.

 

And that's just like, my opinion, man.

Edited December 16, 2023 by pinkrobot_pb

[DeepEyes7]

Why people want ND to release a half baked with no support MP to three weeks later start complaining about the lack of support and how unfinished the MP is? Then they will close servers after one year and we will have another unfinished U2/U3/TLoU(PS3) on our profiles XD

[Jeanolt]

On 12/15/2023 at 11:41 AM, mega-tallica said:

The sense that I get, from not only myself but from many others, is that there's a fatigue setting in. With not only the Naughty Dog formula, but the overall Sony formula. The realistic characters, the movie-esque scripts, the narrative-driven game experiences loaded with cutscenes, etc.

God of War Ragnarok is the top played game in the site right now, one year after the release. Spider-Man 2 is loved by the community.

 

On 12/15/2023 at 2:04 PM, Jacko_the_lad said:

"I'm glad this got cancelled" is such a weird take.

 

Even if you're not interested in it, cheering on something new being cancelled is very strange, especially at a time when rehashing old games is so common.

I don't think anyone did, is just an analysis of their explanation on why did they cancelled the game. Between 1 online game and multiple single-players we kinda agree to have the second option, even if it means the first one will not release.

 

I obviously wanted ND to release a normal multiplayer mode back in 2020 or 2021, but I'm not running the company and it isn't in my hands to take that decision. The longer time ND takes to release, the higher the risk of failing.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Jeanolt

[mega-tallica]

2 hours ago, Jeanolt said:

God of War Ragnarok is the top played game in the site right now, one year after the release. Spider-Man 2 is loved by the community.

 

Yes, they're still popular games, I never said they weren't. So are the Marvel movies, doesn't mean they're all good movies though. 

 

I'm just saying, compared to 10 years ago, there is much more criticism towards the Sony formula of games these days. They're not exactly as universally loved as they once were and Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 are no exceptions. I loved Ragnarok but it's not exactly a game I would feel the need to come back to and play again because of the structure of the game itself. There's that formula again that people, like myself, are starting to become tired of. 

 

Spider-Man 2 was even more guilty of it in my opinion and I'm far from the only one that found that game pretty disappointing. And if you go back further to Forbidden West, that game was met with the most criticism of any Sony 1st party title released in recent memory. The common criticism being, 'too slow', 'too boring', 'too many cutscenes', that kind of thing. As long as these games keep coming out with this same formula, these criticisms are just going to continue to compound over time. Too much of the same all the time is not always a good thing, that's when fatigue sets in and it has certainly set in for me. 

[Jeanolt]

1 hour ago, mega-tallica said:

 

Yes, they're still popular games, I never said they weren't. So are the Marvel movies, doesn't mean they're all good movies though. 

 

I'm just saying, compared to 10 years ago, there is much more criticism towards the Sony formula of games these days. They're not exactly as universally loved as they once were and Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 are no exceptions. I loved Ragnarok but it's not exactly a game I would feel the need to come back to and play again because of the structure of the game itself. There's that formula again that people, like myself, are starting to become tired of. 

 

Spider-Man 2 was even more guilty of it in my opinion and I'm far from the only one that found that game pretty disappointing. And if you go back further to Forbidden West, that game was met with the most criticism of any Sony 1st party title released in recent memory. The common criticism being, 'too slow', 'too boring', 'too many cutscenes', that kind of thing. As long as these games keep coming out with this same formula, these criticisms are just going to continue to compound over time. Too much of the same all the time is not always a good thing, that's when fatigue sets in and it has certainly set in for me. 

It depends on where you're reading. Those comments were the same six years ago when Horizon released and then when God of War did. Those people will always be against games with cutscenes, or maybe they simply like to be against the mainstream, in this case, Sony games. Spider-man 2 was pretty well received and many people wanted it to be the goty.

 

It's basically like opinions. I don't like league of legends but not because of that I want them to delete the game and make a new one with cutscenes.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Jeanolt

[majob]

8 hours ago, mega-tallica said:

 

Yes, they're still popular games, I never said they weren't. So are the Marvel movies, doesn't mean they're all good movies though. 

 

I'm just saying, compared to 10 years ago, there is much more criticism towards the Sony formula of games these days. They're not exactly as universally loved as they once were and Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 are no exceptions. I loved Ragnarok but it's not exactly a game I would feel the need to come back to and play again because of the structure of the game itself. There's that formula again that people, like myself, are starting to become tired of. 

 

Spider-Man 2 was even more guilty of it in my opinion and I'm far from the only one that found that game pretty disappointing. And if you go back further to Forbidden West, that game was met with the most criticism of any Sony 1st party title released in recent memory. The common criticism being, 'too slow', 'too boring', 'too many cutscenes', that kind of thing. As long as these games keep coming out with this same formula, these criticisms are just going to continue to compound over time. Too much of the same all the time is not always a good thing, that's when fatigue sets in and it has certainly set in for me. 

Thing is everything has critics, moreso when it's popular and Sony is at the top of the game. I'm not saying you're one of them but many of the people I see harping about the "movie game" label tend to either be nintendo/microsoft fanboys simply trying to stir shit or people hating on what's popular. Cutscene heavy games have been a thing since the PS1 but its only become an issue now

Edited December 17, 2023 by majob

[mega-tallica]

2 hours ago, majob said:

Thing is everything has critics, moreso when it's popular and Sony is at the top of the game. I'm not saying you're one of them but many of the people I see harping about the "movie game" label tend to either be nintendo/microsoft fanboys simply trying to stir shit or people hating on what's popular. Cutscene heavy games have been a thing since the PS1 but its only become an issue now

 

It's become a noticeable issue now because so many games are following the same trend, especially with the Sony 1st party titles. It was not the same in the past. There were some cutscene heavy games in the past, sure, but nothing nearly as excessive and widespread as it is now where literally 1/3rd, and sometimes more, of the gameplay time in a typical Sony 1st party title are cutscenes. When you do speedrun's and skip all cutscenes, that's when you really notice how short and light these games are on gameplay. A 15 hour story like Spider-Man 2 quickly becomes an 8 hour story, just by skipping all the cutscenes. Speedrun's for that game I think are getting well under 5 hours now, closer to under 4. The cutscenes and dialogue are what take up the majority of your playtime so the 'movie game' criticism has become a more and more accurate description of the modern video game structure as of late. 

 

To get this thread sorta back on track, I feel like Naughty Dog were the ones that really started this trend with the Uncharted trilogy but mainly The Last of Us. The smash success that was The Last of Us put the $$$ blinders over Sony's eyes and now all their major studios are following that same formula and have seen success, don't get me wrong. Santa Monica abandoned the traditional GoW style for a more narrative-driven style, Guerrilla abandoned Killzone for a more narrative-driven Horizon, Sucker Punch abandoned InFamous and Sly Cooper for Ghosts of Tsushima, a very narrative driven game, Insomniac abandoned Resistance and now probably Ratchet and Clank too to focus entirely on making narrative-driven Marvel games in Spider-Man and Wolverine and likely many more future ones and then there's Naughty Dog who abandoned Jak and Daxter to focus on their more narrative-driven games. All abandoned individually unique games for a collective shared formula and now most of the Sony 1st party stuff all feels the same rather than being individually unique as they once were. 

 

It's certainly not all just people hating on what's popular for the sake of being edgy or fanboys of competitors trying to stir shit up and when it is those people, they make it pretty clear what their agenda is by their comments. A lot of the criticism I read is on these very forums, forums that are clearly filled with Sony fanboys. 

[shadaik]

13 hours ago, mega-tallica said:

I'm just saying, compared to 10 years ago, there is much more criticism towards the Sony formula of games these days. They're not exactly as universally loved as they once were and Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 are no exceptions. I loved Ragnarok but it's not exactly a game I would feel the need to come back to and play again because of the structure of the game itself. There's that formula again that people, like myself, are starting to become tired of. 

You realize "this game has a story" is not exactly  a formula, right?

[MonaSaxPayne]

I personally have no issue with story driven games with great graphics, gameplay and lengthy cutscenes

 

who remembers metal gear solid 4? 

[majob]

6 hours ago, mega-tallica said:

 

It's become a noticeable issue now because so many games are following the same trend, especially with the Sony 1st party titles. It was not the same in the past. There were some cutscene heavy games in the past, sure, but nothing nearly as excessive and widespread as it is now where literally 1/3rd, and sometimes more, of the gameplay time in a typical Sony 1st party title are cutscenes. When you do speedrun's and skip all cutscenes, that's when you really notice how short and light these games are on gameplay. A 15 hour story like Spider-Man 2 quickly becomes an 8 hour story, just by skipping all the cutscenes. Speedrun's for that game I think are getting well under 5 hours now, closer to under 4. The cutscenes and dialogue are what take up the majority of your playtime so the 'movie game' criticism has become a more and more accurate description of the modern video game structure as of late. 

 

To get this thread sorta back on track, I feel like Naughty Dog were the ones that really started this trend with the Uncharted trilogy but mainly The Last of Us. The smash success that was The Last of Us put the $$$ blinders over Sony's eyes and now all their major studios are following that same formula and have seen success, don't get me wrong. Santa Monica abandoned the traditional GoW style for a more narrative-driven style, Guerrilla abandoned Killzone for a more narrative-driven Horizon, Sucker Punch abandoned InFamous and Sly Cooper for Ghosts of Tsushima, a very narrative driven game, Insomniac abandoned Resistance and now probably Ratchet and Clank too to focus entirely on making narrative-driven Marvel games in Spider-Man and Wolverine and likely many more future ones and then there's Naughty Dog who abandoned Jak and Daxter to focus on their more narrative-driven games. All abandoned individually unique games for a collective shared formula and now most of the Sony 1st party stuff all feels the same rather than being individually unique as they once were. 

 

It's certainly not all just people hating on what's popular for the sake of being edgy or fanboys of competitors trying to stir shit up and when it is those people, they make it pretty clear what their agenda is by their comments. A lot of the criticism I read is on these very forums, forums that are clearly filled with Sony fanboys. 

I'm sorry but you're bringing up someone rushing through the story mission in Spider-Man 2 while ignoring all of the additional side content as a showcase in the game being too narrative driven and short? Every game is pretty short if you just skip through everything it offers and only do the bare minimum. You would have absolutely loathed the earlier days where a person with significant skill could finish a game in under 30 minutes. My personal best for Super Mario 3 is 20 minutes and for Super Metroid it's 50 minutes. Then you say Sony's studios dropped unique games to make narrative driven games so I ask how does GOW play similarly to Horizion or how Horizion plays to Ghost of Tsushima or how does Ghost of Tsushima play similarly to Spider-Man? Games with a story isn't a genre. I can get someone not liking cutscene heavy games but to say "every" Sony game is "the same" narrative driven game is a bit disingenuous.

Edited December 17, 2023 by majob

[mega-tallica]

24 minutes ago, majob said:

I'm sorry but you're bringing up someone rushing through the story mission in Spider-Man 2 while ignoring all of the additional side content as a showcase in the game being too narrative driven and short? Every game is pretty short if you just skip through everything it offers and only do the bare minimum. You would have absolutely loathed the earlier days where a person with significant skill could finish a game in under 30 minutes. My personal best for Super Mario 3 is 20 minutes and for Super Metroid it's 50 minutes. Then you say Sony's studios dropped unique games to make narrative driven games so I ask how does GOW play similarly to Horizion or how Horizion plays to Ghost of Tsushima or how does Ghost of Tsushima play similarly to Spider-Man? Games with a story isn't a genre. I can get someone not liking cutscene heavy games but to say "every" Sony game is "the same" narrative driven game is a bit disingenuous.

 

No, I love older games because they're almost ALL gameplay, the gameplay pushed the game along, not the story. There are no wasted moments where the controller is figuratively out of your hands for long periods of time like you do with newer games because they're so focused on the narrative and the story. That whole 30 minute long walking carnival section in Spider-Man 2 is what I'm talking about. If you think something like that belongs in every game because of the story and it's actually fun then we fundamentally disagree. That stuff is just not fun to me. 

 

When I say GoW is similar to Horizon and Ghosts of Tsushima is because of all these games have those similar moments. They all have those parts where the game slows to a crawl because story cutscenes take control of the game for more than just a moment a lot of times. You can take a bathroom break and make a sandwich and these cutscenes are still playing when you come back sometimes. I know because I've had that happen. I never said I don't like stories in video games, my point is that the focus on the story has gone too far and has become too excessive for what I look for in video games and a lot AAA games are going in that direction, especially the Sony 1st party stuff. When I'm playing a video game, I want to be playing the game. It's hard to get into the gameplay when every 5 minutes there's a 5 minute cutscene that interrupts it. 

[BusyFace13]

7 hours ago, mega-tallica said:

There were some cutscene heavy games in the past, sure, but nothing nearly as excessive and widespread as it is now where literally 1/3rd, and sometimes more, of the gameplay time in a typical Sony 1st party title are cutscenes. When you do speedrun's and skip all cutscenes, that's when you really notice how short and light these games are on gameplay. A 15 hour story like Spider-Man 2 quickly becomes an 8 hour story, just by skipping all the cutscenes. Speedrun's for that game I think are getting well under 5 hours now, closer to under 4.

I actually agree with most of what you said in your full post, but using speedruns as an indicator of game length is a bit misleading. Speedrunners have completed Baldur's Gate 3 glitchless in like 3 hours, but that doesn't make the game shorter than Spider-Man 2.

Edited December 17, 2023 by BusyFace13