Naughty Dog’s troubled, long-in-development multiplayer adaptation of The Last of Us has lost one of its most important employees: the man tasked with making money. Anders Howard was recruited by the award-winning studio last November, as the release’s Principal Monetisation Designer. In other words, he was tasked with creating systems that would presumably encourage players to part with their cash for cosmetics, buffs, and other items.
However, considering the project is all-but cancelled at this stage, it looks like there’s no role left for Howard. Less than a year after he joined the team, he’s updated his Linked In page to confirm his work ended in September 2023. This aligns with recent reports we’ve read regarding various layoffs and redundancies at the developer.
We can’t say many will be sad to see the departure of a Principal Monetisation Designer, but it was always going to be essential in a live service game. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll never get to see what Naughty Dog was cooking, and it makes for quite a concerning generation in general from the California-based first-party; three years into the PS5 era it’s only released a remake of The Last of Us, and its next major game is still likely to be several years away.
[source linkedin.com, via twitter.com, psu.com]
Comments 66
Yeah…. This isn’t happening.
Might put the nail in the coffin of Sony’s live service games before it even truly begins…
@Powerplay94 Given the extreme controversy around TLOU2 and yet its re-releases still sold like fresh bread, I don't think a bad product is going to harm them at all. We seem to have a COD or FIFA situation with this franchise - people moan about it continuously and then buy it anyway.
@LifeGirl With one difference: The controversy was about ideology, and the TLoU games are genuinely great. As ND, I wouldn’t risk to ruin my superior reputation.
Tlou multiplayer was really good can't understand how they messed this up to the point it's cancelled.
I bet the microtransaction guy is a real hit at parties.
@Jswift56 Yeah, factions 2.0 would be great with just a graphics upgrade. Make it standalone and free with ps+ and you got an instant winner.
I am as happy as anyone that the live service game crashed and burned, my only concern is the amount of resources they have already took from single player games.
I imagine several studios are not going to have anything to show us for years, if not almost the entire generation. And as a gamer that sucks
@Sakai you can't find anything to play for awhile?.I mean October is absolutely stacked,. Start making a backlog , also a ton of games announced for early 2024 I think you'll survive until new games come on the market.
I'm just happy that games a service are crashing left and right, might make devs consider leaving it the hell Alone
The person in charge of microtransactions is basically the modern day bully who steals lunch money from kids.
Sad generation ahead indeed. Hope everyone enjoyed the few games we got off the tail of the PS4 the first few years of the PS5. Because the next five or so are going to be the sad aftermath of what Jim Ryan put into motion.
I heard a leak that Jim Ryan had personally greenlit Bloodborne 2.. as live service. Everytime you died you had to buy 'bloodgems' to get another life. However normal red bloodgems meant you couldn't redeem your souls, you needed purple premium bloodgems to make sure your souls didn't disappear. However purple bloodgems meant your weapon durability degraded faster so you needed obsidian bloodgems to maintain your weapons etc. etc.. Sadly it will never see the light of day as Bungie reviewed it and said it needed more gem tiers and hats. Sounded awesome too.
I don't get why so many are thinking the studios are only making live service games. All studios are making multiple games at the moment. It's a shame resources went into this but it won't be a complete loss. Last of Us 3 will most likely have a factions multiplayer mode.
The biggest problem is that most AAA games cost a lot of money and more timethen ever to make because of the high standards the studios have but the higher standards of the fans. If the games don't look 20 times better then PS4 then gamers will be all over them that the PS5 was a waste of money etc.
I call this a huge improvement.
I hope all the assets that where build for this crap can be re-used in TLoU 3 or another game so this won't be a total waist of time and money.
"Principal Monetisation Designer" eh?
Yeah, we can do without him...
This might be one of the bigger stains on Sony in the last couple of years. All this live services ***** will push them to bankruptcy.
I think the last point is key.
3 years into a generation (and I expect they had dev kits a year before that), so perhaps 4 years of development and the only progress is a remake of a remake. Jeez.
@Uromastryx I think Sakai was talking about games across all first party PS studios, not in general.
@Jswift56
I still play Factions to this day. TLOU multiplayer is so much fun and especially with friends.
How they messed up this badly when the formula was already there is insane.
@Uromastryx I have got plenty to play. My point was that I would prefer to be playing some more Sony first party aswell
Now make an interview with Hermen Hulst and ask him:
1) Do they still believe in "generations" - if so, why no PS5 only games so far except Ratchet and Clank?
2) Why no news on upcoming firstparty games?
3) Why is he hiding from the PS5 owners? What have he done for us the last few years? Will he be replaced just as Jim Ryan now that the service-crap is caving in? Will we see any firstparty PSVR2 games or has he abandoned the platform already?
And so on...
So many questions we need answers to in my opinion.
@Netret0120 I think the problem is that at some point it evolved from a simple multiplayer addition similar to the original factions - which is all anyone wanted - into a full blown standalone release complete with a storyline. Imagine Destiny in a TLOU coat.
I always worried they were getting overambitious with the follow-up to Factions. Part of what made the original Factions so great was how straightforward it was while retaining the tense feeling of slowly stalking around looking your opponent that the single player had in spades. It was excellent.
Factions 1 only got ruined when they added the Pay-to-Win weapon microtransactions so when I heard Factions 2 was going to be a giant live service game I was already worried. However I did not expect to just see the project just implode on itself like it did. Just a crazy turn of events.
@Sakai sorry mistook your post, but yeah sony seem hellbent on pushing indie and vr2 and now ps portal, plus all these lay offs, so yeah your statement is definitely right could be years before a good triple A comes
Making good games is hard and game cancellations happen, even at the biggest studios, just usually not seemingly this late or this publicly.
I still wonder what Sony Santa Monica’s mysterious Project Darkside would have been. Long rumoured to be a Sci-Fi RPG directed by Stig Asmussen, who directed God of War 3, which was cancelled after around 4 years of development. Stig left after this and went on to direct Jedi:Fallen Order and its sequel.
Finally my family are free after Sony kidnapping them and forcing me to play thier live service game or else, they've took everything from me single player games gone, quirky AA or indie games that everyone loves but never brought or played gone and now this, live service and any multiplayer gone. Sony is doomed.
all of this to please Bungie when Destiny isn't exactly brilliant in the first place
What does 'all-but cancelled' mean? I'm not a native English speaker and I assumed it means that it is then not cancelled, but the sentence after it seems weird...
I hope the door hit his arse on the way out and he forever feels like there's a stone in his shoe, but when he checks, he can't find it.
@Texan_Survivor Hopefully, someone realised how important of an IP it is and didn't want it to be ruined by "live services".
@Mysterio It means that it's not actually officially cancelled but it might as well be. "De facto" cancelled, basically. Or you could say as good as cancelled.
@LN78 "bro, im out of beers, can I take one of yours?" "Yeah, that will be 30 dollars!"
There must be so much drama behind the scenes at Sony's HQ right now it would make for a brilliant half-fictional soap opera.
Why couldn't they just give us TLoU remaster MP again in ll? Update maps a few Eakins and boom we happy no need for live service bs
@Perturbator How about a comedy instead? Mythic Quest is a decent watch, and Danny Pudi's character is basically the slightly villainous 'Monetisation Designer' on the team.
I don't get why they don't just release the Factions core product, even without it being engaging enough as a service game? According to earlier comments, it's supposed to have a significant narrative core, so I'm sure a lot of people would still like to experience that.
Surely that's about a million times better than letting all that effort go to waste? Unless the core product is so terrible that it would require tons more resources, but I find that hard to believe.
One day I would love to know the full story behind this.
@Mysterio It means that the game hasn't officially been announced as cancelled by Sony or Naughty Dog, but with all the recent bad news regarding the game's development, it's looking like the game will be cancelled.
I’d rather pay for a multiplayer game at retail price than play a MT filled F2P title. I mean, look at Overwatch. Game was a 10 at $60 and it’s like a 6 (maybe, if I’m generous) now. Let him go and hopefully he changes his career trajectory. Do things the right way, ND, and make a feature complete mp experience without trying to milk us.
Maybe his work was done since he wasn't part of the recent layoff.
Now I can never get the invisibility pack to murder my friends and foes while being a ghost in the game for buying the anti retirement pack.
It's really sad to see the state that Factions is in. I really enjoyed TLoU1's Factions mode so I was looking forward for the sequel's spin on the multiplayer feature.
The one good thing to come out form this is that hopefully, Sony will realize their view on live service games just isn't enough and will instead focus on single player games with or without multiplayer add ons (that aren't necessary to enjoy the base game like GoT Legends). Still, a shame to see. Whether yoy like TLoU2 or not, you have to admit that the combat itself is really solid and I would have loved to try it out in co-op or PvP.
@Uromastryx In regard to you telling another commenter can’t they just play other games while we wait on Sony to release more .
I don’t know about you, but many of us bought a PS5 to play actual PlayStation first party titles. Otherwise, I could have went with another system if first party titles didn’t matter to me.
Quit defending PlayStation bungling this generation.
@Sakai I replied to that guy with the same answer as well. There are many of us that only bought a PS5 because we want to play PlayStation 1st party studio titles. It’s annoying the hell out of me when people keep defending them by saying why don’t you play something else.
PlayStation used to have the slogan, Greatness Awaits.
Now, it feels like Greatness Awaits, and Waits, and Waits
Well that's good in my book, we don't want any of it, along with digital only complete games tied to a server.
Anytime someone loses their job is a terrible thing, but I doubt many (myself included) will morn the loss of the microtransactions guy.
Goodnight, sweet prince. Japan must've saw the damage all of this live service crap was about to do the brand and is going scorched earth internally.
Don't fix what ain't broke. Look what happened when Microsoft tried and look what happened when Nintendo didn't.
Stick to your bread & butter, make great single player story driven exclusives and everything will be just fine.
Naughty Dog needs to put their feet back on the ground. Not everything needs to be this vast, epic, story based experience. They have no idea what makes Factions actually fun. Sometimes simple is better ND, hope you learned your lesson. I'm guessing their first new title will be cross gen. What a waste!
I have a feeling that Sony is in a bit of inner turmoil and in some generation defining trouble post Spiderboy's release. As much of us saw with their conduct in the last 2 years, it appears our concerns were very much founded.
Even if Sony reversed course right now on their predominantly doomed to fail late arrival to the now dead live service gold rush and started acting like they appreciate their fan base again, it would take years of dev time to recover on the software side. However, it's a very unlikely "IF." Just as stupid as it is to blame a president for all the corrupt ills of a given multi-party government often controlled by private corporations and wealthy family cartels, it's equally as ignorant to assume that Jim Ryan really had sole agency or even a majority of it in the decisions Sony made in terms of trajectory on the software and hardware front.
Thus, I suspect Sony is on a pretty rough collision course with learning the hard way.
@Gelloh I'm puzzled as to why you would think their first new title will be cross gen, considering the only title they've released since the PS5 launch so far has been a current gen + pc title. Obviously that was not a new game, but the fact that it was already not a cross gen title shows they were only interested in future proofing their engine.
@KundaliniRising333 not if what they are making is good. I mean you are right but if they somehow manage to release good games even if they are gaas it won't be dooms day. And actually failure is always good for consumers. I know I don't feel betrayed lol and I wouldn't mind to play helldivers 2 on ps plus extra lol
@Gelloh there is no reason for cross generation anymore, not even in japan the ps4 ver of games sell anymore (exaggeration) ps5 already has the numbers
Great news, they aren't going to stop their plans until they see their own failure not the failure of others like the SEGA idiots.
The faster these games fail the faster they will stop doing them and let's be honest Bungie's Marathon has a big chance of being a hit because those dudes know what they are doing even with something so mid like Destiny 2 they made so much money so the failure has to come BEFORE that release. Wasting so much time and money in this is a good start.
It's weir so many people who complained so much about the gaas plans either talk about this as the final day or the "i was right" day because this is good news for ALL consumers in the long run.
I dunno. I have a creeping feeling that he was let go for not being "greedy and predatory" enough. Give it a few weeks i'm pretty sure the next article on this will be "bungie loans monetization expert to naughty dog"
The title Principal Monetisation Designer does make me vomit inside my mouth a little bit, I have to be honest.
It's very bad for the studio, at these rates they could release only one title in the generation.
I was looking forward to this game. Sad that they're not going to finish it!
Recent events seem to point to the fact that the live service games bubble is finally bursting. I'd bet only a few of those 10 such games in development at Sony will see the light of day.
Sounds like a good thing, but careful what you wish for. One would think Sony would go back to its bread and butter, but these trends have a way of being replaced by even worse ones. Think AI and cloud.
Meanwhile over at Insomniac they’re pumping games out for the PS5. Next year we’ll probably get TLOU part 2 remake from Naughty Dog. A new title from them a year before the end of PS5, 2027. Whatever that title is we’ll be a PS6 remaster for launch, so exciting 🙃
@Matroska Thanks for the explanation. Something really specific to the language haha
@itsfoz they didn't buy bungie for all that monies to just ditch their live service plans 😅
Nobody wanted a bloated GaaS. Just give US Factions 2.
Damn Sony is just going to add everything they worked on to tloU 3.
No true new PS5 in this gen can only mean Bad management over at Naughty Dog. Hope they sorry their sh*t out.
@LifeGirl the only people making TLOU2 controversial were some sweaty neckbeards on the internet. Literally no one in the real world gave a *****
On the surface just going off the rumors, this is an absolute shi** show and the timeline for projects has been seemingly been set back for a while. They came into this generation doing a remake no one freaken asked for. Not only did they work on the PS5 version, but then they worked on the PC version as well. All while this mp which has been in development for years gets seemingly canned in part because Bungie didn't think it would last long. So now you have nothing and theirs no telling when we will even see the first trailer for a new game.
EDIT: I didn't even account for the thought that they may be working on a The Last of Us 2 PS5/PC port. This ***** will make you want to blow a gasket just thinking about it.
They didn’t have to make this Into such a complicated matter …. The last of us is the my favourite franchise , I don’t understand what’s happened to this game , just announce tloup3 and put me out of my misery !!!! While your at it just release a new socom navy seals (socom2) live service game sorted
We can get the gamebattles community back together
@Jswift56 I would have take a visually enhanced version of Grounded Mode from the first one. they could still do this. But i imagine they wanted something to rival pubg or fortnight,a wasted oppurtunity
They should have hired someone to eliminate bigots, toxic men and neck beards.
@Ainu20 when I say cross gen, I'm referring to PS5/PS6. Looking at their 5-6 year production cycle, their next game will come so late in the life cycle, it'll be time for the next console.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...