Those wild-eyed mavericks over at Sony have gone and done it again: Bloomberg reports today that the entertainment giant is gearing up to take its chances on one heck of a longshot bet, apparently putting into motion plans to remake obscure and niche video game title The Last Of Us. Those of you not tuned into the outer fringes of the gaming ecosystem probably aren’t familiar with Naughty Dog’s plucky little underdog, which has languished in obscurity ever since being published for the PlayStation 3 back in 2013. And then re-published for the PS4 in 2014. And then drowned in critical acclaim, and massive sales. And then it received one of the most high-profile and hyped sequels in video game history. Oh, and it’s getting turned into a TV show by HBO.
You know what? This The Last Of Us game might not be so obscure as we previously thought!
Which isn’t stopping Sony from taking efforts to make it even less obscure-er, with Bloomberg reporting that everyone’s favorite daddy-daughter zombie road trip is now being updated for the PlayStation 5, presumably bringing it up to graphical snuff with 2020's The Last Of Us Part II. (And we’re honestly shocked that there’s no talk of a PS5 upgrade for TLOU2 to go along with the news.) This will allow new and old players to finally experience The Last Of Us in the manner it was originally intended, i.e., one that still gives Sony a whole bunch of money.
And while there’s been some intra-studio drama about who’s actually going to be working on the project, this re-re-master is mostly fascinating because of how it speaks to Sony’s ever-evolving stance on (or maybe just against) backwards compatibility, the practice of allowing new consoles like the PS5 to play games released for earlier generations. From a purely business perspective, there’s no real reason (besides “not wanting to get yelled at”) for the company to spend money to include a feature on their new consoles that exists pretty much exclusively to allow people to not buy new games from them—hence the recent push to re-release the most popular games every few years, while simultaneously cutting access to older titles. (Most notably with the recent decision to discontinue PlayStation store support for PS3 and Vita games.) And even then, there are obvious arguments that there’s probably no game on the planet that needs increased exposure or access less than The Last Of Us, once again highlighting the problems that arise when profit-driven motivations control what does and doesn’t get digitally archived from gaming’s ever-expanding past.
On the other hand, those giraffe necks are going to look crisp.
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And for the gamer community, a new ending:“Joel and Ellie both lived into ripe old age after settling into Wyoming, and they certainly didn’t interact with any trans individuals!”
Resident Evil1, 2, 3, spinoff, 1 Remake, 0, 4, 5, 6, 7, 2 Remake, 3 Remake, 8Tomb Raider1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 Remake, 8, reboot 1, reboot 2, reboot 3TLOU1, 2, 1 Remake
I wished they’d put this out on PC.
*cash register noises*
The Last of Us… The greatest prologue in video game history.
Also the greatest climax.“C’mon baby girl, c’mon baby girl…”
Don’t really see the point of this. Graphic fidelity hasn’t jumped so far ahead from the PS3 days that a full remake seems warranted. A remaster maybe but a full remake just seems like a waste of resources. It’s not something that is gonna make me jump out and buy a PS5.
Might be able to do more with the combat if they use the LoU2 system, which was much more dynamic and engaging.
It absolutely has. Put 1 and 2 side by side and the difference is a lot more dramatic than you think.
Even so, this is still a move that happens when a series/franchise becomes creatively bankrupt.
But you have to put them side by side. Play it on its own and at no point are you going “yes, this is a disaster, how could anyone possibly enjoy this lo-fi garbage.”
2 looks significantly better than 1.1 does not look so bad that a remaster is needed. The characters have not yet fallen into an uncanny valley where what once read as serious now reads as silly, the environments are large and detailed enough to be able to convey exactly what is intended without any charity on the audience’s part, and game design hasn’t had any fundamental upheavals in the years since TLoU first came out. It’s aged remarkably gracefully, and the raw artistry behind it still shines through even if the poly counts and shaders are a couple generations behind at this point.Of all the games from that generation that could use a remake, TLoU might be the single game that needs it the least.
Main theory going around is that this is a combination of cross promotion with the upcoming HBO series and Jim Ryan only wanting big ultra mega hits from first party studios.
I think Jim Ryan might be bad at his job.
It was already remastered for the PS4 about a year after the PS3 version dropped. Putting out a new version of some sort for 3 consoles in a row shows a ridiculous lack of imagination for a game company.
Because Sony would rather squeeze blood from a stone.
Are you kidding me?The difference between Demon’s Souls on PS3 and PS5 is like night and day. Massive, massive difference.
Spoilers, all characters will become members of the Pacman family!
I’m not even into games. But I wouldn’t call Last Of Us obscure or niche. I‘ve read about it everywhere. Sure, it’s not Mario Kart, but it seems pretty popular.
That’s the joke.
Did I mention I’m an idiot?
No PC? No sale.
I don’t think Sony cares.
More like “No PC? Hundreds of millions of dollars in sales anyway.”
Sony doesn’t like to play with others unless there’s huge profit potential requiring no investment on their end.
They definitely don’t!
“[T]hose giraffe necks are going to look crisp.”I said the same thing at my last exotic animal barbecue.
^ Donald Trump Jr
I greatly prefer Microsoft’s stance on legacy games than whatever Sony seems to be doing – between backwards compatibility on their new console and fuss free FPS boosts and upgrades done by their team for any developer that signs off on it, the difference seems to be night and day.
I still don’t get how they’re making a show out of this, a derivative product of dozens of zombie movies.
It’s not about originality, it’s about craftsmanship. The Walking Dead has tried and failed for many seasons to tell even one story as compelling.
Honestly, the best thing TWD ever gave us was it’s creative and sometimes mesmerizing use of zombies. It’s when the show focused on the character drama in the absence of zombies is where it utterly fails.
As long as it focuses on Joel and Ellie, it has a chance to work. The concept and world-building ain’t anything special, but the main characters, their dynamic and their respective arcs are solid as hell, and the game was at its best when it focused on them. The zombies were the dullest part about it.
From a purely business perspective, there’s no real reason
for the company to spend money to include a feature on their new
consoles that exists pretty much exclusively to allow people to not buy new games from them-
Nickle and dime gamers for sure. It’s the same reason DLC has become ubiquitous in the industry now. “Because money” is the reason for everything, but there come times when it’s just not okay to be the excuse anymore. When your buyers actually want backwards compatibility, from a ‘purely business perspective,’ isn’t not doing this literally anti-consumer?
And backwards compatibility exists to allow people to give money to them. The upfront cost of an emulator – which would be significant, make no mistake – would mean that you have a huge back catalog that you can adjust shove on your store and people can spend money on. Yeah, they can still use their old discs, which is a nice goodwill gesture, but the real reason you do BC is to give people a way to keep giving you money for stuff you made years ago and don’t really have to do anything with anymore. And maybe you discover that people really like Ape Escape or something in the process.If you really feel like it you can give a company like Limited Run a license and just do another print of a game that is getting hard to find. Or not tell anybody you’re doing another print and make a million dollars tricking people into paying eBay prices for The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.
The other benefit is that it vastly increases your game catalog on your console. As someone who never bought a PS4, I’m vastly more interested in a PS5 the more games there are that can be played on it whether they’re old or new.
I don’t like Sony’s decision but since Bethesda was able to release Skyrim dozen of times and didn’t suffer any ill consequences I can’t fault Sony too harshly.
No matter how it turns out, its got to be superior to the NBC game “This Is Us”, in which your character spends most of the game crying and arguing with other characters, who are also crying, and trying and failing to be stoic.