Before the inevitable The Last of Us 3, Naughty Dog wanted to revive its multiplayer, which was particularly popular with the community. The Californian studio will finally make the decision to cancel it after several years of development, and that’s probably a good thing.
Sony’s strategy quickly failed. The Japanese publisher wanted to enter the game services race with full force, capitalizing on its strong licenses before reviewing its plans. Concord will be the first (real) fruit of this policy: a new license that is far from being for everyone and that will finance its launch. It’s hard to imagine how a game that had little success during its (free) beta phase will manage to find a place in an already saturated market. The one that had its chances, however, was The Last of Us Factions.
After several years of development, Naughty Dog finally shut down its free-to-play. Many players felt it was Bungie’s fault, raising serious doubts about the project’s long-term sustainability. The recent wave of layoffs at the studio has revived an old debate.
The Last of Us Factions canceled for a good reason?
The Last of Us is in the spotlight more than ever. The HBO series opened up the license and its post-apocalyptic universe to a whole new audience. Its popularity is at its peak and should reach another peak next year with the broadcast of the second season. Initially, Naughty Dog and Sony had found the perfect solution to build on this success: The Last of Us Factions. A free multiplayer that would be inspired by the online mode of the very first game and was particularly appreciated by the community by bringing more narrative and a handful of microtransactions.
The Dogs’ most ambitious project to date, aiming for the excellence that players have come to expect. In the end, he will never have achieved it. After an evaluation by Bungie, which was brought into the PlayStation stable to provide its expertise in service games, Naughty Dog made the decision to cancel The Last of Us Factions. And contrary to what many players think, this is not directly the fault of the former Halo studio. ” That didn’t happen », explains journalist Jason Schreier to a gamer who believes that a developer who hasn’t made a good game for years has no right to tell his colleague to “cancel a project”.
In reality, Bungie was just providing advice and feedback that the dogs found. extremely helpful in deciding not to go all-in on a service game, which was probably the wisest decision », explains the journalist.
Has Naughty Dog avoided a bitter failure?
He points out that service games for studios known for their solo productions have rarely been successful. The examples, which have multiplied over the years, speak for themselves. BioWare with Anthem, Crystal Dynamics with Marvel’s Avengers, Arkane Studios with Redfall or, more recently, Rocksteady with Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League. Insomniac Games also worked for a time on a multiplayer for Marvel’s Spider-Man before changing its mind, no doubt for the same reasons that led to the cancellation of The Last of Us Factions.
Naughty Dog is now focusing on what it does best: single-player games. The Californian studio is reportedly hard at work on a new license, which is rumored to focus on either fantasy or science fiction. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Neil Druckmann and his team are seriously looking at The Last of Us 3. Perhaps remnants of Factions will find their way into this sequel? The Dogs will have plenty of time to tackle the subject matter, as the game isn’t expected to be released for several years.
Source : Jason Schreier on X
