The Last of Us is one of the best selling PlayStation exclusives of all time, but Naughty Dog didn't think that the game was going to succeed during development. In fact, the studio was so worried about how the release would be received that it described the title as the company's "downfall" internally – a play on the outing's apocalyptic themes.
"We thought that it was going to tank," game director Bruce Straley said of the game during the latest Conversations with Creators clip. "We thought that we were going to ruin the name and image [of Naughty Dog] that's been so heartily built for years with blood, sweat, and tears. We thought that we were ruining Naughty Dog's image"
Apparently, the title didn't gel until the very last minute. "It wasn't coming together," lead designer Anthony Newman continued. "So it was really a set of really lucky breaks in terms of gameplay decisions that we made that really made everything fall into place and turned it into a fun game." The company's probably being modest here – after all, we doubt that luck played a part.
Either way, the title had sold over eight million copies across the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 as of August 2014, and is probably nearing the ten million units milestone by now. That puts it up there with Gran Turismo, which historically has been Sony's best-selling exclusive franchise. No wonder there are rumours rife regarding a sequel, huh?
[source youtube.com]
Comments 15
Not sure about a sequel, but I wouldn't mind them taking on a new game entirely and a new story.
Either way TLOU was a masterpiece of story telling, environment, monsters and psychology. That opening was outstanding as well.
Good on Naughty Dog for still going with it and not being conservative and scared to try new things. Thatngoes for the majority of Sony WWS. Cough 343i, Turn 10, and Black Tusks.
I'm actually playing through the PS4 version as we speak. I have had it for a few months but having all ready played the PS3 version a ton I waited.
Throwing a brick at someone and then running up and smashing them with a 2x4 is just as awesome as ever...
I would like another game set within the world of TLOU but with different characters maybe.
@Dohv Stop with that fanboy nonsense. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo ALL create original stuff - and ALL of them rely on tried-and-true franchises. It's called good business.
@Kage_88 Sony and Nintendo sure, but MS ? Not so sure about that.
I'm still playing this
@Neolit That will be severely limiting her play time, to be honest.
SEMI SPOILER ALERT- I would love to see what happened in the twenty year gap. Either that or do a story about Tommy, Joels brother.
I loved how invested I got in the main characters. At one point I was begging god to please let each off them live.
They can't do a sequel on Joel or Ellie as it ended just perfect and I would hate anything to ruin that.
Im my opinion, easily one of the best games I have played in my 30 years of gaming. Whilst the gameplay was great, it was the characters, acting, story and world that blew me away. Never have I cared for characters the way I did in The Last of Us. Absolute masterpiece!
I also being a father really helped me develop an emotional attachment with certain characters. The opening sequence just blew my mind. I didn't realise that my mouth was still open from what I had just witnessed until my mouth started to dry out lol.
It makes a nice little story but the cynic in me doesn't believe some of this. You'd really go ahead with releasing a game you think is going to tarnish your company's image forever?
@Dohv
MS is funding ReCore and Scalebound, both coming from respected developers. And they make sequels to Halo, Gears and Forza, all of which are popular. Don't really see the issue here. It's fine not to like MS but it's not doing anything Sony or Nintendo haven't.
@Gamer83 Yeah but once those games sell all of 3 copies MS will never touch those again. If you're not Halo, Forza, or Gears you won't sell well on that platform. That's just a fact.
Microsoft also have Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Phantom Dust and Cuphead - not to mention the awesome-looking Hololens. Even when they tried pushing Kinect as something new, people moaned about it. Hence the familiar franchises to placate their whiny gobs.
@Dohv Again, you're picking and choosing. All consoles have games that don't sell - and games that DO sell. Even Shuhei Yoshida admitted that only 30 to 40% of Playstation games make money.
@Dohv
Ok, if we're talking about what sells, what doesn't sell, sure, but that didn't seem to be where the discussion was going, it was suggested that only Sony and Nintendo try new IPs and that's simply not true.
@Kage_88 I just like the PS exclusives better but thats personal. I just more into those games and you get more Japanese type games 2 and the PSVita TV gives me tons of rpg's.
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