Naughty Dog is in danger of missing the boat with the PS5
Naughty Dog is in danger of missing the boat with the PS5
Following a string of remakes and a cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer game, Naughty Dog needs to leave a mark within the PS5 generation.
Wild you can tell what side of gamer gate people were on by how toxic they are in this thread.
If Sony was worried about that, they shouldn't have forced them to work on a multiplayer GAAS instead of what they do best.
Making platformers in the 90s and 2000s?
These type of news are pointless. Tomorrow a trailer could be released about their obvious new game that they are working on and people will forget about this. Give them time to work on the game. It's hypocritical that later we complain when companies release a unfinished product.
After cancelling the TLOU: Online game, and no more games to remaster, ND is looking pretty stale right now
Nah they could remaster Way of the Warrior for the 3DO
Maybe they should start off by figuring out how to actually make a good game
It’s hard to have a proper conversation about this topic due to all the heavy emotions and toxicity it brings out, but I do think they missed the mark on TLOU2.
I think they definitely anticipated it to be a bigger and more universal hit - the last sales number I heard was 10 mil after a few years, which is half of big PS hits, including their former flagship games (and the game was heavily discoundted after the first few months, bringing in less money than those quickly selling at full price).
The show probably caused a sales boost mostly for the 1st game and it’s remake. Now I assume they will do the same with the 2nd season of the show and the TLOU2 remake.
Still, these are all products building on existing creative content - where is the next step, what new thing(s) are they working on? I loved almost all their games, but I’m not going to spend money on the remakes of games I already played a few years ago.
It seems like now would be a good time for Crash Bash to be revived. Or anything Crash Bandicoot. Does ND still have the license for Crash? I'm drawing a blank.
Edit: they don't. RIP. I'm unsure how that works after looking it up with all those studios.
Jak and Daxter is still theirs.
That would be a good one. If it was like 2 or 3.
They must be up to something. They have the pedigree to deliver a new IP franchise and for all anyone knows that is what they're doing.
Do they?
Ignoring staff churn for a moment (that comes later): Crash Bandicoot was very much a "this also exists" on one of the most popular consoles of all time. Jak and Daxter was... also a "this also exists" on what is arguably the most popular console of all time depending on your time adjusted metrics. And Uncharted was "Wait, Tomb Raider can actually be fun to play? Holy shit" on the blu ray player everyone bought. And I want to say basically everyone (barring the chuds) universally acknowledged the new Tomb Raiders were "Uncharted but a lot better" AND wore out their welcome by the second game in the trilogy...
The Last of Us was really their first "big IP" that transcended console "fanboyism". In large part because it was two or three generations beyond the "cinematic cutscenes" that every studio was pushing for coupled with tapping into the "sad dad" zeitgeist while sort of kind of having an LGBTQ+ deuteragonist for the five people who bothered to play the DLC. And... there are a lot of reasons people got REALLY angry about the sequel...
So... back to staff churn. I am too lazy to verify so take this with a massive grain of salt, but I want to say ND were one of the more egregious studios with respect to abusing contractors and dicking over anyone who left during the years of crunch with regard to the credits? I want to say Schreier touched on it but it never gained a lot of traction because ND are the mascots of Sony. Similarly, I have not followed the various layoffs and migrations up until the last burst.
But... the last few years are pretty representative of other studios (Visceral? The Dead Space devs. They come to mind) that "lucked into" a major IP and didn't have the management necessary to repeat it. Lots of meandering, likely internally scrapped or restarted projects, and something like 3 years of "Yo, we are going to add multiplayer some day". With the various TLOU remasters a way to train up new staff to understand the tools.
Because the people who did the amazing tech wizardry that put the PS3 on a milking table and edged it into a giant gooey mess? The people who wrote and workshopped the dialogue and set pieces we love while not being high up enough to get a "director" credit? They moved on (willingly or not...). That is just the nature of the industry*. The Naughty Dog that made Jak and Daxter or Uncharted or even The Last of Us is not the Naughty Dog of today.
Oh, and there was an Uncharted game that may have been even more ignored than Jak X? And which may have had black face? I can't tell if that was a joke or not because I never got around to it.
I hope that ND have something up their sleeves because, as much as I point out the reality of their past IPs... I fucking loved all of them (and if TLOU2 were maybe half as long I would have loved that too...). Hell, I tend to piss off my friends every "gaming night" because I put all cart racing games in the context of CTR. But this all reeks of internal issues and I am not holding my breath for the inevitable "and coming soon from Naughty Dog. This new IP. We'll have more details next year" announcement.
*: Fun story. I went to Tennocon (the Warframe convention) this past year and went to the panel on writing. And I was genuinely gobsmacked to realize one of the writers on Warframe (Cam Rogers) had worked with Remedy on Quantum Break. And I chatted with him a bit after the panel and it all suddenly clicked together when he talked about having worked on some of the best (some might say only good parts...) of QB. And that lines up with the parts he "takes credit" on for Warframe. Because big names are important for the overall product, but it is the "grunts" who actually make those moments that stick with us.
Every single Uncharted was groundbreaking for its time. Not just the narrative, but the gameplay and the technology itself. They delivered again for The Last of Us and sequel. So two A-grade franchises under their belt.
Doesn't mean they'll have another hit but it stands to reason they're not sat on their asses doing nothing right now. They're either working on a TLOU spinoff or a new franchise or both. Now I'm not privy to what they're up to but I'm sure if you google "Naughty Dog rumors" you might pick up some hints. e.g. one rumour suggests a game codenamed Paradox whose description sounds oddly close to what the Fallen London (Sunless Sea / Sunless Skies) franchise is although I doubt it would be the same, mores a pity. Fallen London is such a mad premise it shocks me it hasn't gotten it's own TV series.