I just sold mine to a coworker. I pretty much haven’t touched it since November. I’ll pick up another one in a year or two once they either have more games out or release a revision.
But to be fair, Sony under his leadership started consolidating their games into the same template that was successful. He even often touted that as an advantage.
Sure, he still let the super small teams do their own thing, even if the games were pretty much sent to die with no support or marketing, so in that sense it’s indeed a downgrade.
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If any studio has carte blanche then surely it’s Naughty Dog. They’ve demonstrated that their name is a guarantee of both quality and sales.
I’m actually really surprised to hear that ND jumped on a TLOU1 remake. I would think they would be the type of studio eager to move on to something new rather than rehash old hits multiple times.
The direction was prior to Jim ryan though. For AAA it started even before the PS3 with sony targeting Ms type of games and pivoting their entire 1st party to that, and finally once TloU was a hit another pivot.
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If I’m a betting person, I strongly suspect that this is just a way of implementing directions from higher up than the head of gaming. CEO / board level. But I’m not a fly on the wall, so I don’t know for sure.
the justifications everywhere, i can’t
“TLOU remake makes sense to tie in with the upcoming TV series.”
Is this Don Mattrick over there with tears of joy?
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Remember when Microsoft was teaming up with Peter Jackson to make Halo Chronicles for Xbox to tie-in with the Halo Movie/TV show he was making?
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A remake of a game that was already remastered in 2014 is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Not to mention that the reason the game is so loved is because of the specific performances by specific actors. Good luck replacing the two best VO performances in video game history and not having fans riot. Just good f’ing luck. 
It also really surprises me that Days Gone couldn’t get a sequel greenlit. The game has zero appeal for me personally but I was under the impression that it was a big hit for Sony.
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Third party Timed exclusives seems like a bad move. After those exclusive deals are up then MS can just pay for a definitive or complete edition of those games or they can get the sequel on Gamepass. Bringing more people into the Xbox ecosystem.
This is true, BUT it was also a shit storm for Xbox fanboys once upon a time too. If Sony was more transparent and open about those plans from the get go instead of being misleading, those fans would eventually come around.
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Son of a bitch…
Of course, the one game im most interested in (Days Gone 2) is naturally the one that was canned. Fucking hell!!!
I knew shit was changing once Jim Ryan took over but holy shit, he’s worse than I expected and could end up giving Mattrick a run for his money if he hasn’t already.
On the positive side, my decision to go with Xbox Series X as my primary gaming console over a year ago is looking better and better with each passing day while the PlayStation 5 will just be for full exclusives only which after today, I have lowered my expectation of 15 exclusives for the generation to 12 from Sony’s studios. UGH.
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For the record PS Now is a pretty cool service that I use regularly but it seems temporary to me. I don’t see Sony keeping the PS3 section going for more than another year or two. It requires actual PS3’s to function on the backend. It’s a catch 22, if the subscribers number stays low then they can continue to give PS3 streaming, but logically there is a subscriber growth number that when Sony hits that milestone then the number of subscribers will overtake the number of PS3’s. Enjoy it while you can because it has built in obsolescence.
Are people surprised that they’re making a TLOU remake when the same company remastered a 2 year old game and put it behind a 70 Dollar Wall?
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Looks like Sony are making the same mistakes that MS did up to 2013 - allowing a focus on TV/entertainment to affect the focus of their gaming division.
Its almost as if Sony only want PlayStation to make games which can be converted into successful TV shows and films. It kinda makes sense for Sony, they do have film/TV divisions after all so there’s lots of potential benefits across the whole company - if they get it right.
MS tried this - Xbox Entrainment Studios, 360 Dashboard focusing on Video over Games, and of course, the TV focus of the initial Xbox One reveal. Everyone knows how that turned out, and Phil Spencer and the rest of Team Xbox have done wonders in repairing the damage.
And by comparison, Sony are just making their job easier by the day. Bizarre of them to put all their 1st party eggs in a cinematic basket. By comparison, Xbox are offering food hampers galore with various types of grub inside thanks to Game Pass.
Jim Ryan is just terrible for SIE
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Me too 
I have high hopes for state of Decay 3 now.
Yeah, I really hope Undead Labs can deliver with SOD 3 as I was disappointed with SOD 2 but enjoyed the first SOD in 2013.
I was expecting the article to be a lot more damning that it ultimately seems. Some of it is indicative of the direction a lot of people have assumed they’ve been heading regarding game output, and other aspects regarding project management don’t seem that absurd.
Does there need to be a PS5 Remake of The Last of Us in the near future? No. Did Sony demand a team create it? No. Was the team heading up this project given a ton of resources prior to shifting development? No. It isn’t some sort of major betrayal as it was only given a probationary greenlight. Should it have even been given that status? No. Since they did greenlight the project, if Naughty Dog wanted to oversee that remake of their defining title, should they be able to instead of this random development team? Yes.
Is Sony focused on blockbusters? In my mind, sure - though I don’t think that’s surprising or all that bad. Their games aimed at delivering those experiences perform incredibly well, follow your strengths.
Should Sony have forced Bend to work with Naughty Dog on a multiplayer title and a new Uncharted following Days Gone instead of developing a sequel? No. I don’t think it would’ve been crazy for them to help if the game was coming to PS5 in the launch window while a second team started early work on a sequel, but to force them to permanently work on other projects after their new IP was a commercial success is foolish. Now, ultimately, we’re two years beyond the release of Days Gone, and they’re already past all of this, including the Naughty Dog projects, and are pursuing a new project; while they may have bled talent as a result of the turmoil in those two years, they are seemingly now working on something else, so there is at least a silver lining there.
Is it fair to compare Dreams to Roblox, and cite it as a missed opportunity of making a smaller game a big money maker? No. It clearly wasn’t developed with that in mind, and forcing it to be some bloated game with microtransactions seems like it would only be more fuel to the blockbuster argument.
It would be much more concerning to me if The Last of Us remake was initiated by Sony heads, or they forced Bend to continue working with Naughty Dog despite their protests, but ultimately that doesn’t seem to be the case. I am curious what the future holds for their studios, as we saw a wave of new IP’s last gen that ultimately fared pretty well; maybe new management aren’t interested in going through with that this generation and want to focus on known heavy hitters and we’ll see less of things like Returnal as the years go on. That would be a disappointment but only time will tell.
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I’m sure it’s been said before here but the remaster holds up well enough. Seems pointless for a remake, especially since the decision was done in 2018 when the game was only out for 5 years. Should have done an Uncharted 1 remake instead, it’s more work but would be worth it.
That’s amazing.
I’m incredibly disappointed that Sony hasn’t shown more creativity in their approach this gen. I have a PS5 and want it to be successful.