I'd be ok with a new IP by Naughty Dog for sure. I would also be ok with The Last of Us 2. Basically I trust that whatever they put out will be pretty good.
The Last of Us
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I'd be ok with a new IP by Naughty Dog for sure. I would also be ok with The Last of Us 2. Basically I trust that whatever they put out will be pretty good.
Sequels for a critically acclaimed game such as this run the risk of the Bioshock effect, where there is minimal room for improvement so all the developers can do is put out more of the same, which is still pretty damn good, but like Bioshock 2 leads to a certain amount of disappointment when it's not a substantial improvement over the original, though IMO there were substantial gameplay improvements from B1 to B2, and it sounds like a TLOU2 could benefit in a similar way.
A game like TLOU doesn't need much improvement game play wise but it can always gain popularity from it's story.
People weren't as much upset with the lack of gameplay improvements between B1 & B2 as they were in the fact that Bioshock was a very closed story. You go down to Rapture, and at the end you get out of it. Yeah, you could add more stories based on that universe, but for anyone who played the original from the beginning to the end can tell that the game wasn't really made to accommodate any sequels or spin-offs (I don't really consider Infinite a sequel in the sense that Infinite took place in a completely different world (sort of)). Also, even though you played as a Big Daddy in B2, it sure as hell didn't feel like you were a BD when compared to how they were in the first one. To be fair, the story for B2 was quite good, but Sofia Lamb couldn't hold a candle to Andrew Ryan on his worst day.
I think a TLoU sequel would be creatively bankrupt, or at the very least lacking. TLoU was the story of Ellie and Joel, not the story of the zombie ridden world. This is different than say, The Walking Dead, where it's an ensemble with interchangeable characters and so you can have the base story and then stuff like Telltale's series. E & J's story ended pretty conclusively. So assuming you don't focus on them and go on to some other protagonist(s), what could you make the plot/conflict be? You can't really do another "Save the world" scenario like you did with the original, and what could you do to top that? Save the universe? I don't care about some personal conflict that doesn't affect the rest of the world. A standard survivor story isn't going to cut it after the original set the stakes so high.
I have the feeling that a company like Naughty Dog has plenty of ideas and concepts they're working on to not milk TLoU, and it isn't like Bioshock where the publisher owned the series and outsourced the sequel to like 5 different companies. Can you imagine Sony sending TLoU to be worked on by anyone else other than ND? Even Sony isn't that dumb. And I'd like to think that ND has more integrity than simply trying to make a cash in off the TLoU name, unless maybe by some freak occurrence Uncharted 4 bombs and they desperately need more money.
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They essentially already did that with Uncharted Golden Abyss (developed by Bend Studios) and the Uncharted Fight for Fortune card game, also created by Bend (talk about cashing in on a name). I also consider as a matter of personal opinion all the skins and maps that were constantly being churned out for the Uncharted 2/3 multiplayer as cash ins. And then you have another Sony first party developer Media Molecule handing over LittleBigPlanet to United Front Games for the LBP Karting cash in. Nothing that Sony does surprises me anymore.
I think Golden Abyss is a different situation. People want Sony's big exclusives on the Vita. That's why Uncharted, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, and Resistance all got Vita games. I'm sure we will see inFamous make it's way over soon too. They aren't going to pull their best studios off console games to make a handheld game though. Basically they had to let someone else work on those Vita games or those big franchises never would have made it to that platform. I don't see a problem with letting another studio work on an established franchise like Uncharted when we are talking about handheld games. Most people would not be very happy if the main Uncharted team was working on a Vita game instead of a PS4 sequel. When the quality is good like LittleBigPlanet, Golden Abyss and Killzone Mercenary I'm glad to see it happen. When the quality is low like Resistance then it smells a lot more like a cash grab.
Yes but none of those were true sequels. They were either ports or spin offs, many of which were on different consoles. And such practices are common nowadays for more established IPs.
Regardless I don't have much interest in a TLoU sequel because of the reasons I mentioned earlier. Also there was some talk of them remaking TLoU with updated graphics like the did with the Definitive Edition of Tomb Raider. I REALLY hope they don't go that route. It wasn't necessary with TR and is definitely unnecessary with TLoU considering that was possibly the best looking PS3 game ever made.
I don't care if another developer works on established franchise either as long as it's a quality product. While Uncharted GA was a great game for the Vita, it was a mediocre Uncharted game at best. Very formulaic. And I do understand that ND's resources are better spent elsewhere. Still, I can only imagine how Sony originally approached ND with their idea for the Vita game, "We'd like you to have Nate hack at stalks of bamboo in every level to find collectibles by having the player run their finger on the touchscreen in zig-zag patterns. And then we'd like to make a strategy card game based on the various collectibles and characters unlocked in the game." To which the ND pres responded, "Um, no thanks. We've got better stuff to do."
And the problem with LBP Karting was that it was mediocre, rushed, broken mess (especially the online), though I did enjoy UFG's Modnation Racers quite a bit and originally thought UFG would be a perfect fit for the LBP iteration.
There's a free documentary about the making of TLoU on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IHV0W3Y?tag=cheapassgam08-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IHV0W3Y?tag=cheapassgam08-20
Apparently they're now making TLoU into a movie..
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/06/the-last-of-us-movie/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/06/the-last-of-us-movie/
I can see why they would want to do this but I would prefer someone besides Neil Druckmann writing it. Sure, that probably means the movie will have more fan service for people who played it but I would rather have him focused on whatever Naughty Dog is going to do next instead of retelling a story I have already seen.
UGH.... So now there's apparently a statement from a Sony Exec that TLoU will be ported to the PS4. Because if there's one thing I kept thinking while playing the PS3 version it was "I wish the graphics looked better!"
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-PS4-in-Summer-Claims-PlayStation-Turkey-Boss
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-PS4-in-Summer-Claims-PlayStation-Turkey-Boss
They won't sell me a game I already played but I can see how this would benefit some gamers. The 360 was the dominant platform in the US for most of that generation. The PS4 is currently outselling the Xbox One. It stands to reason that a large chunk of PS4 gamers were 360 gamers last generation. I can see a significant group of PS4 owners being people who never owned a PS3. There could be a decent market of PS4 owners who haven't played TLoU and want to get into it. I bet we will see an Uncharted collection before Uncharted 4 similar to the God of War collection that came out on PS3 too.
I do think it's silly to buy this game on PS4 if you already played it on PS3. Assuming they are using a smaller team to bring this over it doesn't really bother me. The way I see it is that porting these games over is a cheap source of income they can bring in quickly. They won't be getting any money from me but if it helps them fund their next ridiculously high budget AAA game, go for it. I may even rent this from Gamefly so I can play the Left Behind DLC that will be packed in. I still want to play that and my only current option is to rent the PS3 version and then buy the DLC so this may actually benefit me.
I do think it's silly to buy this game on PS4 if you already played it on PS3. Assuming they are using a smaller team to bring this over it doesn't really bother me. The way I see it is that porting these games over is a cheap source of income they can bring in quickly. They won't be getting any money from me but if it helps them fund their next ridiculously high budget AAA game, go for it. I may even rent this from Gamefly so I can play the Left Behind DLC that will be packed in. I still want to play that and my only current option is to rent the PS3 version and then buy the DLC so this may actually benefit me.
Not necessarily. I think that for the most part the main demographic of users from PS4 were PS3 owners, thus people who already had TLoU. I don't think that the PS4 is selling so well because 360 owners are adopting it, but rather because the PS4 is cheaper, so PS3 owners are jumping on it more quickly than 360 owners are jumping to the One. As we've seen with the Titanfall bundle, price is a major hurdle for the One adoption (among others like games and multimedia features). Finally, let's not forget that a large number of gamers this past generation had more than 1 system. Of those that I know of that only had 1, I have yet to meet one that jumped to the other (360 owner jumping to the PS4, PS3 owner jumping to the One.) So odds are that most of those players who wanted to play TLoU have already done so. Hell the game sold 6 million copies worldwide.
My main point is that it feels like bringing TLoU to the PS4 seems very unnecessary and in this day and age of diminishing returns on games and the money thrown into it, it just seems like a senseless money grab, but done the wrong way. I'd argue that you'd get much more profitability if you sold TLoU for $20 nationwide for 2 weeks than you would throwing money and resources to resell TLoU on the PS4 for $60. And I'm also not shot in the butt about what is starting to turn into an uncomfortable trend of taking established IPs and bringing them to current gen and bringing nothing other than DLC and enhanced graphics, especially when said games aren't even a year old.
The sad part is that many hardcore Playstation fans who already played TLoU on PS3 will probably pre-order this. People say backwards compatibility doesn't exist on consoles anymore. It actually does. They just found a way to monetize it. People must be buying all these "HD" re-releases because we are starting to see a lot of them. I realize that TLoU and Tomb Raider were already HD unlike God of War before it was ported up to PS3. That's just what they called these ports last gen and I'm not sure what to call them now.
Anyways, you're definitely right about this being a money grab. Since I won't be one of the people giving them money I guess I'm ok with that. The industry has been going through some weird times. Developer layoffs have become daily news at IGN. Mid-sized publishers like THQ have mostly disappeared. We are now left with the biggest publishers and indies.
As long as we still have big publishers like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Microsoft and Sony AAA games will continue to exist but it seems like more and more people are getting out of the big budget scene and moving into indie or mobile development. I have nothing against indie games. I play lots of them myself. I still want my AAA big budget fix too though. I hate to hear about studios shutting down or developer layoffs because that just means less AAA options for me. If going for cash grabs like this means they don't have to lay developers off and their next game is funded I'm ok with it.
I think your idea of dropping the price on PS3 down to $20 get that version selling again is a good one too. I'm not sure how many people who haven't bought this on PS3 already would even at a lower price point but I'm sure that market exists.
Sony submitted this statement about the story. Hardly a denial:
When approached, a representative for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe provided Joystiq with the following statement: "'At no time have we announced that The Last of Us is coming to PS4 and therefore, have nothing to say on the subject."
When approached, a representative for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe provided Joystiq with the following statement: "'At no time have we announced that The Last of Us is coming to PS4 and therefore, have nothing to say on the subject."
They probably had some big announcement planned for E3. Still, there probably isn't much to say outside of it's coming with updated graphics and DLC packed in. I bet they were planning on just throwing up a trailer and trying to surprise people but that is ruined now. There's not much they can say that would excite people outside of what we already heard.
TLoU Complete Edition for PS4 pops up on a foreign website
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/29/listing-for-the-last-of-us-complete-edition-pops-up-on-xtralif/
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/29/listing-for-the-last-of-us-complete-edition-pops-up-on-xtralif/
And now it's popped up on PSN. Yeah, I'd say this is a definite..
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ed-for-PS4-Listing-Leaks-on-PlayStation-Store
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ed-for-PS4-Listing-Leaks-on-PlayStation-Store
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