
Update: Well, well, well. Naughty Dog’s statement came as a bit of a surprise earlier today but it seems like it was pre-empting a report from Bloomberg effectively suggesting the project is in the pits. Extremely reliable reporter Jason Schreier cites four sources familiar with the release, and claims Sony has “slowed down development” on the title “as the creators reassess its quality and long-term viability”.
Schreier goes on to report that the project was scaled back during a recent evaluation, which we know also resulted in the closure of PixelOpus and the likely cancellation of Deviation Games’ first title. “A small group remains on the project while the company re-evaluates the direction,” continues Schreier’s report. “While the game hasn’t been cancelled, many of its developers have been moved to other projects.” That’d presumably include the company’s new single player title.
In the aftermath of the Bloomberg report, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb weighed in on the topic: “All I've heard about this game is that it looks a lot like a studio's first live-service game, and that Naughty Dog wanted to do things its way, which maybe didn't bode well for Factions.”
The Last of Us Factions was expected to be one of Sony’s flagship live service titles, a business model the Japanese giant is so obsessed with it purchased Bungie to help expedite its efforts. But according to Schreier, the Destiny developer wasn’t impressed with what Naughty Dog was making. “Bungie raised questions about the The Last of Us multiplayer project's ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time, which led to the reassessment,” the Bloomberg article claims.
When Sony bought Bungie, it said it would utilise the studio to establish a live service centre of excellence, and it’s probably safe to assume it’s that new department which has resulted in all the current disruption occurring within PS Studios. Of course, the sceptics among you would perhaps be right to point out that PlayStation was doing great when it was focusing on single player games, so we’ll need to wait and see how it steadies the ship moving forwards.
Original Article: Well, despite being officially announced almost four years ago, it looks like The Last of Us Factions, the standalone multiplayer game from Naughty Dog, still isn’t close to release. Many pondered why the title was absent at this week’s PS Showcase, especially after series creator Neil Druckmann had promised we’d learn a lot more about the project this year. But in a statement the studio said that while it’s “proud of the job our studio has done so far […] we’ve realised what is best for the game is to give it more time”. There’s no word on when or where we’ll learn more.
The statement continues: “Our team will continue to work on the project, as well as our other games in development, including a brand new single player experience. We look forward to sharing more soon. We’re grateful to our fantastic community for your support – thank you for your passion for our games, it continues to drive us.”
And that’s it!
There had been some small sliver of hope that the title may appear during Summer Game Fest, but clearly it just isn’t ready for the primetime. All of this is obviously concerning, as outside of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Helldivers 2, all Sony had to show during its disappointing PS Showcase were a couple of CG trailers. Insiders continue to claim there’s a lot more being kept secret behind-the-scenes, but when it comes to The Last of Us Factions, we’d recommend buckling up, because it sounds like it’s still a long way away.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 121
Still think it’s Last of Us 3 given the second series has the green light.
Smells like a severly mismanaged Studio Imho. Almost 3 years into the lifecycle of the PS5 and not even glimpse of their first new Game
Good, take your time and get it right as opposed to releasing something half baked and on time.
When is the second season of the HBO show estimated to air? Factions 2 will probably accompany that.
So I'm guessing they have 2 titles in development factions, last of us part 2 director cut and their next big game either lou part 3 or hopefully a new IP.
Thank you naughty dog for giving us an update!
@Magnus_Selene in all fairness they did release the uncharted 4 PS5 port and last of us remake last year.
This sounds pretty bad for Factions
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1662174968384311296
Team was scaled down a lot
@Americansamurai1 I dont count those because it was just a HD Port lol. And nobody asked for those
Take your time, plenty of good games coming in the near future.
@Magnus_Selene Didn’t they release their first PS4 game over three years into the consoles lifecycle? And TLOU2 came out at the very end of PS4. I don’t see how that leans toward mismanagement.
I said the other night that this game wasn't as long into development as the article implies it was. I mean would you prefer they did a CGI trailer for it instead because many of you didn't like that either.
@itsfoz don't think its TLoU3. Last time Druckman talked about it he said something to the effect that they would only make it if they had an engaging story to tell... And that was fairly recently. There have been rumors for a while that they are working on a sci-fi game though.
@Americansamurai1 Would love to see what a Naughty Dog fantasy game looks like.
I mean I know I'm always going on about fantasy titles, but a high fantasy game done with that ND style is the dream.
I'd take Savage Starlight just as quickly though.
@IamJT
Well yeah but its been 3 years now and Factions or their new Game will take way longer lol
lol, Bungie said the game was bad and Sony pretty much gave it up.
Difficult years lie ahead for PlayStation. At least it looks like they're seeing the bombs before they're dropped, but but lack of new games in a regular basis will for sure impact them.
This is starting to sound like a disaster.
I think it's time they make another remake of TLoU. It's been a few months since the last one. And they don't seem to have much luck with anything else.
@Magnus_Selene True. But five years between games of the Naughty Dog caliber is no problem haha. When June 2025 comes around we can talk mismanagement 🤣
Hey, do you think PlayStation - known for their high quality single player games - pivoting to make loads of multiplayer games was maybe a bad idea?
@IamJT The Dev Team for factions was severly scaled down, this Game aint coming out at all
@johncalmc and its not like Sony didnt have multiple big GaaS/MP flops already... remember Destruction Allstars lol
@johncalmc Naw, I think it's a solid strategy. It worked out really well for Crystal Dynamics switching to Avengers.
@Americansamurai1 @itsfoz Neil already confirmed they're not working on or even had a plan for a TLoU3, so that's the only thing we can be sure of that it isn't. I'm sure they'll do a 3 someday but they're not doing it now.
@Grimwood Don’t be ridiculous. the show was far from being awful and one the highest applauded shows of the year so far and will continue to be.
The show was awful, that’s hilarious.
@NEStalgia Another great contribution from yourself. It's not like they released the amazing legacy of thieves collection for PS5 just last year.
How bad do you ***** this up? No one asked for Factions to become some massive beast of a project. That was on ND.
All people wanted was a refined and expanded Factions 1 experience. That's it.
They easily shoulda been able to do that AND have done it when TLOU2 dropped. Their desire to make it into something it wasn't, and then not deliver? That's a failure. Plain and simple.
Will be interesting to see what they launch with all these reports swirling it's been scaled back and changed directions.
Like for me? Redo Factions 1 and release it as a F2P game and just expand upon it once it's back out in the world. How hard can that be?
Epic developed Fortnite into a friggin PLATFORM over its life (so far) because it was out there gathering feedback and data and garnering fans. Can't do that unless the game is in the wild. And we KNOW the core game was good. That's why it garnered the fanbase it had before.
Like come on, ND. You're smarter than this. Or should be.
Oof. The update of this article!
Sounds like it’s in poo poo city.
@Intr1n5ic Oh, you're right, I totally forgot about their remasters that sit nicely next to their remake of their remaster. They've really been on fire, creatively.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
Bungie makes the worst multiplayer games, Factions is the best mp game, so
So sad to see mainstream and "Marvelisation" of Sony since some years now
Rapidly developing story so apologies for all the changes, but this has been fully updated now!
If the project is indeed in trouble then at least some will be happy that's one less live service game.
@Magnus_Selene Its a huge bummer for me, but if that means more focus on their next single player project it is worth the sacrifice.
Say what you will about Bungie, but if their input means these live services continually get delayed or canned, that was a great acquisition as a single-player guy.
Brand new single player game? I'm going to have some false hope that it's a new Jak and Daxter.
@Grimwood Except they must be doing something right because they retain a strong player base. Most companies would kill to Destiny 2's numbers after 5 years.
Oh look Sony is shadow cancelling a gaas title to focus on a single play game instead I’m sure everyone will be overjoyed with this news!
@Heavy_Artilery Lol have you seen how Microsoft manage their studios? Naughty dog would be ruined.
@IamJT Yeah Imho Sony needs to just can most of those 12 GaaS in development and focus on what they are known for
@NEStalgia Still far more creative than the negative comments you make everytime you see an opportunity to jump on a Sony news article.
All this GAAS shizzle off to a flying start I see, thank God for insomniac games is all I can say.
@NEStalgia I mean, if anyone genuinely believes they never had a plan for a third game in a set of games which evidently lends itself to a trilogy and has about 10 unanswered questions out of its second game then I hate to break it to you, but people lie ha.
Could be wrong but you don’t sit on two games in a series.
@UltimateOtaku91 They already said they wouldnt return to Jax unfortunately. My hope is a western...
Imagine that this got 'scaled down' (will get cancelled obviously) and Fairgame$ got greenlit lmao. Hermen Hulst needs to go. Between all the remakes, the cross-gen, the lack of original IP, the failure of Deviation, likely failure of Fairgame$, and most importantly having Sony's best studio waste 4 years on remakes and a failed multiplayer project, it's pretty obvious he is mismanaging PlayStation first party studios
So Jason schrier says Bungie look at Factions and said it wouldnt hold players interest for very long.
Sounds to me like it would have been just fine as a stand alone multiplayer project but wasnt "live servicey" enough.
Granted a big name like TLoU has a better chance of being a successful live service than FairGame$
But still, just release it already!
Oh deary dear. Speaks more to mismanagement than anything else to be honest.
Also Naughty Dog Release 2-3 new games each gen and that's not including ports or hd remasters. We have already had one this gen so far which was TLOU Remake which was built from the ground up so technically a new game. I would expect their second single player game around 2025 and then their third game (TLOU 3) to come at the very end of the PS5 life cycle.
@FenIsMightier
And that is the point. Sony wants them to direct their GaaS initiatives so they can have more games that can equally or even more successfully "encourage" a continuously "engaged" audience to keep coming for more.
@RBMango except that Fairgame$ apparently did get Bungie's approval lmao. Sony has a top tier brand image, known for delivering the highest quality single player experience, and is quickly wasting that to turn into a Ubisoft-type money milking machine. Really sad to see honestly.
This is just a part of creative development. Sometimes you get to a milestone and realise it hasn’t all come together as you had hoped and planned. At that point you have a few options:
1) Launch it anyway
2) Keep pushing forward, hoping to improve it.
3) Scale back the team while you see if you can fix the core with a smaller team
4) Cancel the project
Seems like #3 is a sensible option and if that doesn’t work out move to #4. I respect them not going with #1 or #2. It can be tough to face facts.
@IamJT Ah that's a bummer, maybe they could give the IP to the team who did the demon souls remake and remake the trilogy, give the games a fresh look and introduce it to a new generation of players, and if it sells well then make Jak and Daxter 4.
So let me get this straight.
Naughty Dog created a fun and well received multiplayer game. Some years later, they started making a sequel to that game.
Bungie came in because Sony wants GaaS to rule and then Bungie told ND that the sequel multiplayer game they are making won't keep gamers engaged and consequently spending money for long enough, so the whole thing is more or less cancelled for now.
Wow.
@themightyant Please don't bring common sense in here, people are busy talking about the end of the world.
This is shocking. Naughty Dog has been hyping up this game with bread crumbs and then comes out with this. Right after a subpar Sony showcase. I’m praying summer games fest doesn’t disappoint.
It seems like Bungie is pretty much the PS Studios GAAS arbiters.
If you don’t hit the mark re-assess, scaled down or get shutdown.
ND is Sony’s golden goose. So if it’s not shaping up. Stop wasting time & move on.
@Atreus97 Or maybe Bungie saw that the game wasn't up to the standard that people expect,
@grimgaming Sony's live service approach was planned even before Herman Hulst was appointed and even then he answers to his bosses at Sony.
Keep players engaged or keep players spending money?
Making games is hard
That’s interesting.
Hard to say mismanagement etc, since deciding it’s not working out and stopping is sometimes good management. As good as ND are with single player games, and despite best intentions, live service games seem like a different beast and Sony should absolutely be taking onboard Bungies input as they have been rolling around in the mud for 10 years now.
It’s how we avoid more Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League‘s, really.
@Intr1n5ic sorry not playing the game correctly. Doom & gloom it is… except Doom is a MS IP now so it’s just Gloom 😂
@KaijuKaiser they're cancelling a game from Sony's best studio & one of their most beloved IPs because it's not addictive enough. Meanwhile they're happy to release some generic Ubisoft-type Overwatch wannabe like Fairgame$ which apparently passed the 'addictivity approval' from Bungie. I'd say that's pretty concerning
Was never very excited for a live service Last of Us, even less so now.
@themightyant Calling it now, MS will own Black Magic Software by the end of the year - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloom_(video_game)
@AdamNovice that's true but he is responsible for Sony's studios. Games from Naughty Dog are instrumental for the success of a PS generation and that studio just wasted 4 years on remakes and a failed multiplayer project. The guy who is the head of PS studios is responsible for that.
On Gotham, Sony should be thanking their lucky stars they bought Insomniac. From PlayStation's mvp to PlayStation's best studio. Period.

Insomniac got lower back pains from carrying this gen.
Naughty Dog ***** around way too much. Should have moved on to the new IP after TLOU2. Instead they started doing an unnecessary remake and messing around with project that initially failed. Now we are multiple years in and with no time table for anything new from them. Gross.
I despise Bungie’s model and knew it would work out badly for us.
Bungie model:
Expensive game with limited content
Season Pass
Battlepass
Expensive Add-in’s
Removes content after you’ve paid for it.
And to go with all that crap, they push a store.
I despise the direction Sony is going.
Take note, Bungie didn’t like ND’s direction.
Bungie is the worst of old and new capitalism all rolled into one.
@grimgaming Exactly. GaaS isn't about being fun. It's about exploiting addictive-compulsive disorders for money. It's the same skill set and product technique as the gambling industry because it effectively is the gambling industry. The "best" GaaS games have people compulsively playing it that aren't having fun but feel a need to push continuously at it despite it causing misery, and still pumping money into it.
@themightyant Nintendo's already selling the Gloom very successfully.
@Splat "Keep players engaged or keep players spending money?"
There's a difference?
@grimgaming Sony have different goals with Haven, their a young studio who need an IP, their using cloud tools for development which Sony seem impressed by and their based in Canada where development is probably cheaper.
@grimgaming Please read my comment.
@UltimateOtaku91 I would love that but apparently bluepoint is working on a new IP (or bloodbourne 2).
@Shepherd_Tallon would love to see any new ip tbh from naughty dog.
Say what you want about Sony but they must still have a high quality standard because it would be easy for them to shove Factions out the door and let the IPcarry it but if it isn't up to a certain standard then better to go back to the drawing board or move on before it costs both Sony and the consumers more money.
@NEStalgia GaaS isn't about being fun. It's about exploiting addictive-compulsive disorders for money
I'm sorry but that's just not true, I've had a blast with Apex Legends, Genshin Impact, Rocket League, Overwatch 1, Splatoon 3, Warlander, Hunt Showdown and Destiny 2 without spending a penny. No battle passes, season passes, cosmetics or currency. Well over a thousand hours combined and I've got a tonne of free stuff via daily's and rewards, especially in overwatch and apex legends.
@NEStalgia technically he never said rather or not they're working on part 3, but with the success of the show, part 3 is definitely happening just hope it's visual arts making it and not naughty dog.
@-Sigma- Three separate studios released three fantastic first party games last year.
@IamJT I think bluepoint is making the next uncharted.
Not good, factions is one of the few live service titles that I thought would be successful. Really proving my point that Herman Hurst is doing a terrible job of managing the 1st party studios.
@Americansamurai1 I am into that.
They should just bundle it with TLoU3 at this point. ND were a great studio once but they’ve really become quite boring in the last few years.
Not exploitive enough long term. That's all you need to know about that model. It's unbelievable where the studio is now. No ETA on nothing. NOTHING!
The Last of Us Factions being scaled down, Fairgames is disliked by literally everyone and Concord telling us absolutely nothing about their games is not the greatest start to the live service stuff. At least Helldivers 2 is looking good
@KaijuKaiser no and it's good that they cancel stuff they don't like. But when a project from (IMO) Sony's best and most valuable studio, who I think never in their history made a bad game, gets cancelled because it didn't get the "Bungie approval", and the (IMO) garbage looking cringefest that is Fairgame$ DOES get the green light I think that's concerning
at least we still have fairgame$
…/s
Good single player is more important!
Well that sounds like a bummer, if true. Bungie isn't exactly hitting live service hone runs for me. Destiny was fun for a few months to me, and I played the campaign for 2 and then immediately fell off of it because it's too convoluted and difficult to parse.
@UltimateOtaku91 Splatoon and OW1 are a separate thing, as they're not trying to bilk you for every action you take. That's not the Bungie breed of GaaS. But for the others the point is you're not the target customer it's meant for. A customer that didn't continuously spend money in it is a customer they don't care if they have. The games are designed for the constant spenders, and the games systems are tooled around the spending. I didn't say that no Gaas ever has anyone having fun. But the goal is to hook compulsive players spending and playing because they "have" to regardless if they enjoy it or it's even unpleasant. That's where the money comes from. GaaS leverages all the same psychology tricks casinos do because they're in the same line of business.
@itsfoz We're talking about the same naughty dog that at some point thought Jak should became a racing game. Who knows what they do!
But yeah, I'm sure even if they didn't want to Sony would insist on a 3rd entry due to the financial power of the series. But I do believe him that they haven't planned it or written it yet, and is therefore not the thing they're working on. I think they planned on making Factions kind of a TLOU3 in a sense and maybe hadn't decided if they were going to make 3, or have Factions serve as 3 depending on their story driven online success. This certainly changes that.
@NEStalgia "The "best" GaaS games have people compulsively playing it that aren't having fun but feel a need to push continuously at it despite it causing misery, and still pumping money into it."
This is so true especially when you look at the communities especially for Destiny. Do they do nothing but complain but yet they still dump hours into it, buy the skins, battle pass, and every DLC. Evern my close friend is a Destiny addict who has over 2k hrs into the just Steam version alone... Does nothing but complain about how he not having fun but continues to play and spend.
The live service push needs to be heavily scaled back right now. This is not what PlayStation is and everything that has happened over the past 48 hours has only cemented it. The GAAS market is cornered, locked down and not letting anyone in anyway. Enough of this crap.
Last of Us 3 needs to hit production immediately, no factions, no multiplayer, no service, let Naughty Dog COOK, having ND waste all of this time is an absolute flop from Ryan & Hulst.
DON'T FIX WHAT AIN'T BROKE.
Just give us a new TLoU or UC. Skip the multiplayer crap.
Pfff I don’t know how I feel about this. I really liked the Last of Us Part 2. I also liked the idea of factions but with story elements. Shame that Sony is listening to Bungie…. The moment I saw every couple of months a new expansion was the moment I decided to never purchase/play any destiny as it’s a timesink.
Off topic: I miss the days when expansions were like new games. I remember Command and Conquer tiberian sun :firestorm very fondly… Shame Westwood died for the same reasons a lot of first party studio’s died… one mistake (Evolution studios, Zipper)
@Intr1n5ic @NEStalgia Leave NEStalgia alone. We need people like him who criticise Sony. Let’s face it Sony from the PS3/PS4 era is gone. Jim Ryan and Hermen only care about that sweet GAAS money. This is illustrated by Jim’s passion to block the takeover of AB. He only cares about the royalties they receive thanks to Call of duty Battle Royale (sorry I don’t know what the battle royale name is..).
It feels like no one has actually read the article!
Bungie (one of the very few companies who gets live service games) raised concerns about long term playability!
This is a good thing. This is Sony realising they have a "Halo Infinite" on their hands MP wise and pivoting accordingly.
@KaijuKaiser ND would never make a Redfall we both know that. I think it got delayed (and likely cancelled) for the wrong reasons: not because of lack of quality, but because it doesn't keep players engaged long enough.
Buying Bungie was one of the worst investments I've seen in gaming. If they have this much power over what is released then they are going to ruin the good image Sony built during the PS4. Idk how these publishers are so dumb. Your formula worked brilliantly during the PS4 and you want to change what your company was good at completely. Can't wait to witness the blow back from all this in about 4 to 5 years.
@Sanquine I take no issue with being critical of Sony, just broken records who contribute nothing but negativity on nearly every article.
How much gaas money did Herman and Jim make from Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, GOW Ragnarok, and the upcoming Spiderman 2?
@Intr1n5ic I think those games were greenlit before the money duo took over..
@Sanquine So who greenlit Factions then?
Well that's..wow...I don't think I have the words. Unfortunate but I appreciate ND coming out and saying something even if it was possibly in response to Jason's article. (Kudos to Jason for getting the scoop.)
I guess all we can do is just hope things turn for the better at some point.
Oh and also kudos to Bungie for speaking up. They must have raised some good questions for this to happen. Hopefully it leads to a better game down the line.
Maybe go back to when we had a MP mode people liked, as the old factions did and other games with SP and MP. I miss that a bit. You don’t see stuff like factions or AC: Brotherhood’s MO anymore. Just part of the package instead of a years long live service model.
Woah... That's a lot of wasted dev hours on the Factions project, considering how long it's been worked on. Guess it's not so much that ND was keeping its cards close to its chest, but more like their whole deck was garbage.
Jim Ryan has wasted too much time and resources on live service crap games, at this point we could have gotten multiple AAA SP blockbusters.
@NEStalgia you know all jokes aside i would buy a native PS5 version of Last of Us 2 but if they cancel the multiplayer game i will not be happy. That was the only Sony game i cared about this year and possibly next.
@Wheatly you said that perfectly, i will just add that PS3-PS5, those consoles are Sony exclusives only for me. I play all my 3rd party games on Xbox. So when i heard about the last of us Multiplayer i was super excited. Last of Us is one of my favorite IP’s from Sony and the only game i was looking forward to this year or early to mid next. When it wasn’t at the show it was a bit of a gut punch cause it’s one less reason to turn on my PS5. Which is fine, i know when i buy a PS i will have some gap’s between major games i care about. But i ain’t a Marvel or Spider Man fan even tho on a technical standpoint they are excellently made. It’s just not for me. I hope we hear more about it at a later date and i will be crushed if they cancel it. Not sure but game development is hard these day’s and Sony’s first party titles need more time in the oven and i respect that. Just hope this is still happening. 😀
@UltimateOtaku91 Brand new single player game? I'm going to have some false hope that it's a new Jak and Daxter.
PLEASE PLEASE be right!!! 😀
@UltimateOtaku91
Doubt it.
I don’t think ND ever wants to touch that franchise again. For some unfathomable reason.
The time to do it would have been when TLOU dropped on PS3. They had a whole team available to develop a AA budget Jak game for a 2015 PS4 release.
Instead they ported TLOU to PS4 (which was good for me because that’s how I played it the first time) and then the entire team went to Uncharted 4 which had its Genesis back in 2012 after Uncharted 3 released.
@practicein2021
Unfortunately the ending of Part II really needs a 3rd game to finish up the storyline.
But no more than that. Just one more game and let the franchise be finished.
@Gaia093
I doubt that.
More likely what happened is that the gameplay was great. But it couldn’t be heavily monetized beyond a basic battle pass.
People seem to forget how predatory Destiny 2 is. FOMO is real on that one. And you have to build your game from the ground up for that sort of structure.
Chances are Naughty Dog crafted a great gameplay loop with Factions. But chances are it would have been too hard to implement a FOMO based system for it.
@FenIsMightier
Fully agree.
That’s why I got out of that nightmare before I plunged myself into the deep end.
I really liked Destiny 2’s gameplay and shooting mechanics. But I could see it for what it was. It’s a damn predator.
This is so bizarre. It feels like Sony is throwing all good faith to the wayside and seemingly plans to make the majority of their suite of upcoming games predatory in design. If they think they can force us into a certain form of gaming simply because of their market share dominance, they are being seriously short sighted and mismanaged.
Another will come along and poach that share. Sony had a pedigree based on a certain level of quality and at one time a diverse suite of games. Of they abandon that chasing live service trends, it will be just the occasional third party bangers and indie games that interest the large group of gamers that are too smart to fall for that predatory garbage.
So if 3rd party then is where we may get more future quality, all Microsoft has to do is invest in making more of them release on gp day 1 to coax once Loyal Sony fans like myself to get an Xbox as well. Playing most there and dusting off the ps only when they pull there head out and occasionally return to sanity.
It's a shortsighted move on their part. One I suspect is based on all the hype and fomo buying of their consoles over the last 3 years. They saw it as an opportunity to capitalize on the platform adoption at the expense of their long term consumer perception.
Did you ever stop to think not everyone likes bungies lame as hell destiny model?
One again an example of the endless growth model Eventually destroying something good in order to make it a predatory recurring revenue stream. It is an inevitability of the current systems we allow to enslave us.
@KaijuKaiser Those live service games will never take off to fund anything.
@NEStalgia your post is half truths and half nonsense, a dangerous combination.
100% Wrong. GaaS absolutely HAS to have a fun and compelling loop, else no one will put 5 hours into it, let alone keep coming back again and again or investing money.
This is the hardest thing about making a successful GaaS, or any game, to make a loop that is so good that people want to keep coming back. (Think Candy crush or Destiny or Fortnite)
That part is true. But the reality is many non-GaaS games are using these same techniques to give you the “just one more go” feeling or making you feel rewarded each time you compete a challenge.
The industry’s dark secret is SO MUCH of gaming is about the psychology of engagement and satisfaction, giving you that endorphin hit, it isn’t limited to GaaS. Both are using it to get your money, one upfront, the other bit by bit. But I agree the later is more dangerous and predatory.
Again partly true. There does come a point where you can be addicted and struggle to finish and get away, and the balance between fun and repetition is but again the same can be said of many non GaaS games, to a lesser extent. Look at people playing the same thing over and over well beyond the game being fun or novel anymore. Almost every open world falls into this category. Fact is many people like mindless *****.
TLDR: I agree GaaS is the more extreme version of most of this and at its worst it can be predatory, that needs to be fought against, but let’s not pretend these issues are limited to GaaS they are emblematic of gaming.
@Powerplay94 I agree. But you can expand much of that to all entertainment.
When a John Williams score makes you feel for someone it’s emotional manipulation.
When music crescendos and you feel that ecstasy it’s emotional manipulation.
Most art is using whatever they can to make you FEEL something and become invested. It doesn’t always have to be seen as dirty, even if sometime it is.
@KaijuKaiser Are you blind? The entire PS fan base has been trashing both those announcements and you think they are going to turn into successful live service games lol.
@FenIsMightier I dont play Destiny so i hace no clue what they are doing over there, but as far as I hear they don’t do worse than most other GAAS.
That aside, if Sony is really giving Bungie this much veto power over all GAAS development, it’s only a matter of time before this starts causing huge morale problems within other Sony studios. It’s a dangerous direction for Sony to take.
@Sanquine
Or the best expansion pack ever, Star Craft Brood War.
I still have no interest in Factions. Wake me up when they remaster/port Last of Us 2 on PS5 or drop a trailer for The Last of Us III.
I'd also be pleased with their mystery new IP finally being revealed...
@OrtadragoonX Never played Starcraft to be honest. The game always seem to be a lot of micro management while command and conquer seem to be more accessible (I know heresy 😓)
@Sanquine
StarCraft is basically micro-management taken it’s to extreme.
“You do not have enough Vespine Gas.” God that drove me nuts trying to do research trees.
And playing online back in the day was kind of traumatic. Cause every once in a while you’d get put in a match with a guy with a Korean username. And you knew you were going to get bodied. Usually a Zergling rush, the most tried and true tactic for rush victories in StarCraft.
I usually played Terran and went for a balanced approach to construction and playing defensively cutting choke points with bunkers and tanks set to artillery mode. It tended to work against other American players.
But against Koreans it was absolutely useless. They played an entirely different game than the rest of us did back then.
Also I always went for nukes just for the meme factor. It was actually a waste of resources in general StarCraft play (you waste a ton of resources researching and Ghosts are ultra fragile and expensive and you had to sneak them into good positions) but when you got it and successfully used it the chat went absolutely wild.
@KaijuKaiser Yea and look at every new live service game thars released over the last few years. They've been shutdown in less than a year. It wasn't because they were all bad. It's because the audience that plays those games are already to invested in the first ones Fortnite, Apex Legends, GTA5, Rocket League etc.
@Magnus_Selene Call me cynical, I was wondering when it's Naughty Dog's turn after seeing almost all AAA studios took turns to fall from grace in the past decade. LOL.
@UltimateOtaku91 Anecdotal evidence doesn't counter facts. Just because you didn't spend money, it doesn't mean the system is not predatory.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...