Current Events > Report: Sony will remake The Last of Us 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't see the point, TLOU1 is fine as is.

Unless they change the story, in which case that could be potentially disastrous.

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They're gonna make the surgeon shoot first to humanize Joel

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imagine The Last of Us with the gameplay enhancements and level design of part II.

that would legit be amazing, plus I think something like this would likely be a PS5 exclusive (until a PS6 remaster came out), but I could be wrong.

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A remake of a remake?

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ITT: People pretend Days Gone was a good game.

It was utter mediocrity.

And the story was trash. 4/10

Pretty much every current Triple A sandbox is better. Even Far Cry 5 was better.

Metro Exodus was better and that only had 2 open ended levels and they both were broken as hell.

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Yeah the story of Days Gone wasnt great.

i did like the gameplay for the most part, it was fun dealing with the hordes. Coming up with a strategy that never really worked anyway lol

i enjoyed the riding too

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sex scene with Bill and his partner confirmed

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UnfairRepresent posted...

ITT: People pretend Days Gone was a good game.

It was utter mediocrity.

And the story was trash. 4/10

Pretty much every current Triple A sandbox is better. Even Far Cry 5 was better.

Metro Exodus was better and that only had 2 open ended levels and they both were broken as hell.

How where those two Exodus levels broken? Genuinely interested btw.


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I dont think the The Last of Us needs a remake but itll print money probably.

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Last Of Us remade with Hank, Bill, Boomhauer and Dale as the main characters.

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didn't they do this with shadow of the colossus, remaster then remake

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Not a shock, It is one of the greatest cinematic games EVER

it will be an HBO Series

PS5 needs a new game before TLOU3

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I dont see a point in remaking it unless they expand it.

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Ryven posted...

Last Of Us remade with Hank, Bill, Boomhauer and Dale as the main characters.

Dang ol clickers man

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UnfairRepresent posted...

ITT: People pretend Days Gone was a good game.

It was utter mediocrity.

And the story was trash. 4/10

Pretty much every current Triple A sandbox is better. Even Far Cry 5 was better.

Metro Exodus was better and that only had 2 open ended levels and they both were broken as hell.

Pretend nothing. I enjoyed the story, characters, world building, gameplay and the hordes. It's fine if you didn't like the game, but plenty of people did and really want to see the story continue.

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fan357 posted...

I dont see a point in remaking it unless they expand it.

wtf you smoking?

RE2 Remake got ALOT of hype

RE4 Remake will be amazing

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NoxObscuras posted...

Pretend nothing. I enjoyed the story, characters, world building, gameplay and the hordes. It's fine if you didn't like the game, but plenty of people did and really want to see the story continue.

The game dragged too much, it should of ended 15 hours max

I remember thinking WTF when is this ending already and still had 15 hours to go

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Joeydollaz posted...

wtf you smoking?

RE2 Remake got ALOT of hype

RE4 Remake will be amazing

RE3 Remake wasn't that good though.

teep_ posted...

The Last of Us: Abby Edition

Imagine young muscled Abby.

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Feels unnecessary. Tlou1 is still fine as it is and already got the remaster.

Honestly just better off making days gone 2, ip or some other game that deserves it. Wish that game would be gravity rush 3 but the director, artist and studio are gone


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SerperiorThanU posted...

Those are just remasters, not remakes. I used to think Bowser's Inside Story was the most pointless remake but there was more of a gap between those games than this.

At least that one changed the graphics from sprite based to 3D, though it was still a pointless remake in general and one that I adamantly believe killed Alphadream.

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Joeydollaz posted...

wtf you smoking?

RE2 Remake got ALOT of hype

RE4 Remake will be amazing

Those games are a thousand years old. RE4 is one of the greatest games of all time. I hope they dont screw it up.

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Is there a link to the article not locked behind a paywall?

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Makeveli_lives posted...

Is there a link to the article not locked behind a paywall?

@Makeveli_lives
I'm assuming you mean the bloomberg article. They're the only source, that every article is quoting, so I think they're the only ones. I can copy paste it (split into 2 posts... Long article).

Sonys Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

Sony Corp.s Visual Arts Service Group has long been the unsung hero of many hit PlayStation video games. The San Diego-based operation helps finish off games designed at other Sony-owned studios with animation, art or other content and development. But about three years ago, a handful of influential figures within the Visual Arts Service Group decided they wanted to have more creative control and lead game direction rather than being supporting actors on popular titles such as Spider-Man and Uncharted.

Michael Mumbauer, who took over direction of the Visual Arts Service Group in 2007, recruited a group of about 30 developers, internally and from neighboring game studios, to form a new development unit within Sony. The idea was to expand upon some of the companys most successful franchises and the team began working on a remake of the 2013 hit The Last of Us for the PlayStation 5. But Sony never fully acknowledged the teams existence or gave them the funding and support needed to succeed in the highly competitive video game market, according to people involved. The studio never even got its own name. Instead, Sony moved ownership of the The Last of Us remake to its original creator, Naughty Dog, a Sony-owned studio behind many of the companys best-selling games and an HBO television series in development.

Deflated, the small groups leadership has largely disbanded, according to interviews with eight people familiar with the operation. Many, including Mumbauer, have left the company entirely. Mumbauer declined to comment and others asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative for Sony declined to comment or provide interviews.

The teams failure highlights the complex hierarchy of video game development and in particular, Sonys conservative approach to making games for the PlayStation 5. The Japanese conglomerate owns about a dozen studios across the world as part of its PlayStation Studios label, but in recent years it has prioritized games made by its most successful developers. Studios such as Santa Monica, California-based Naughty Dog and Amsterdam-based Guerrilla Games spend tens of millions of dollars to make games with the expectation that the investments will pay off exponentially. And they usually do. Hits including 2018s God of War and 2020s The Last of Us Part II are exclusive to PlayStation consoles, helping Sony sell some 114 million of the PS4. Rival Microsoft Corp. has taken the opposite approach, relying on a wide array of studios to feed its Netflix-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, which allows users to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to a variety of games.

Sonys focus on exclusive blockbusters has come at the expense of niche teams and studios within the PlayStation organization, leading to high turnover and less choice for players. Last week, Sony reorganized a development office in Japan, resulting in mass departures of people who worked on less well-known but acclaimed games such as Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf. The company has informed developers that it no longer wants to produce smaller games that are only successful in Japan, Bloomberg has reported.

This fixation on teams that churn out hits is creating unrest across Sony's portfolio of game studios. Oregon-based Sony Bend, best known for the 2019 open-world action game Days Gone, tried unsuccessfully to pitch a sequel that year, according to people familiar with the proposal. Although the first game had been profitable, its development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed, so a Days Gone 2 wasnt seen as a viable option.

Instead, one team at the studio was assigned to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game while a second group was assigned to work on a new Uncharted game with supervision from Naughty Dog. Some staff, including top leads, were unhappy with this arrangement and left. Bend's developers feared they might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, and the studios leadership asked to be taken off the Uncharted project. They got their wish last month and are now working on a new game of their own that will be part of a brand new franchise.

Emphasizing big hits can also be counterproductive because sometimes games that start small can turn into massive successes. In 2020, Sony didnt put much marketing muscle behind the quirky video game creation system Dreams, by the PlayStation-owned Media Molecule in the U.K. As a result, PlayStation may have missed out on its own version of Roblox, a similar video game tool. Parent company Roblox Corp. went public earlier this year and is now valued at $45 billion.

For their first solo project, Mumbauer and his crew wanted to pitch something that would be well received by their bosses at Sony. Recognizing the risks and expense involved with developing a new game from scratch, they decided to focus on remaking older games for the new PlayStation 5. Remakes are considered a safe bet since its cheaper to update and polish an old game than it is to start from scratch, and they can be sold both to nostalgic old fans and curious new ones. The team originally planned on a remake of the first Uncharted game, released by Naughty Dog in 2007. That idea quickly fizzled because it would be expensive and require too much added design work. Instead, the team settled on a remake of Naughty Dogs 2013 melancholic zombie hit, The Last of Us.


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At the time, Naughty Dog was in the thick of development on the sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which would introduce higher-fidelity graphics and new gameplay features. If Mumbauers crew remade the first game to have a similar look and feel, the two games could be packaged together for the PlayStation 5. In theory, this would be a less expensive proposition than remaking Uncharted, since The Last of Us was more modern and wouldnt require too many gameplay overhauls. Then, once Mumbauers group had established itself, it could go on to remake the first Uncharted game and other titles down the road.

But pivoting from doing finishing work for other games to making your own is difficult, since original development teams are competing against hundreds of other teams from all over the world, with varying levels of experiences and successes, said Dave Lang, founder of Iron Galaxy Studios, which has served as a support team and a development studio.

The people funding the work are often risk-averse, and if they have to pick between a team thats done it before, and someone trying to do it on their own for the first time, I can see why some people pick the prior developer over the latter, he said.

Thats just what Sony did. Mumbauers project, code-named T1X, was approved on a probationary basis, but Sony kept the teams existence a secret, and refused to give them a budget to hire more people, leading many to wonder if the company was really committed to letting the team build a new studio. Still, the small team kept working and by the spring of 2019 they had completed a section of the game designed to showcase how the rest would look and feel.
At that time, Sony was going through a management shuffle and the new boss wasnt impressed. Hermen Hulst, the former head of Guerrilla Games, was named head of PlayStations Worldwide Studios in November 2019. He thought the remake project was too expensive, according to people familiar with the matter, and asked why the planned budget for T1X was so much higher than remakes Sony had made in the past. The reason was that this one was on a brand new graphical engine for the PlayStation 5. Mumbauer needed to hire more people to help rework the graphics on new technology as well as redesign gameplay mechanics. Hulst wasnt convinced, the people said.

Just when it hoped to enter production on the remake of The Last of Us, Mumbauers team got called in to help when another big game fell behind. Release of The Last of Us Part II had been pushed to 2020 from 2019 and Naughty Dog needed the Visual Arts Service Group to polish it off. Most of Mumbauers team, along with some of the 200 or so other staff at the Visual Arts Service Group, was assigned to support Naughty Dog, slowing down progress on its own game.

Then, the roles got reversed. Sony sent word that after the completion of The Last of Us Part II, some people from Naughty Dog would help out with T1X. Mumbauers team saw this as their short-lived autonomy being stripped. Dozens of Naughty Dog staff were joining the project, and some had actually worked on the original The Last of Us, giving them more weight in discussions about T1Xs direction. The game was moved under Naughty Dogs budget, which Sony gave more leeway than the Visual Arts Service Group. Soon it was apparent that Naughty Dog was in charge, and the dynamics returned to what they had been for the last decade and a half: The Visual Arts Support Group aiding another team of developers rather than leading.

To Sony, the move made sense. Naughty Dog is one of the key studios for Sonys ability to sell PlayStations, said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman. Sonys competitive advantage has always been exclusive content over Microsoft and more new games as well as remakes of classic titles from such a storied team can help sustain demand for PS5.

But those who had wanted independence were disappointed. By the end of 2020, most of the T1X teams top staff had left, including Mumbauer and the games director, David Hall. Today, the T1X project remains in development at Naughty Dog with assistance from Sonys Visual Arts Support Group. The future of the remainder of Mumbauers team, which has come to be jokingly referred to as Naughty Dog South, remains unclear.

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Dark_SilverX posted...

Imagine young muscled Abby.

but she wasnt that muscle-bound at the beginning of the game.

its a progression. She probably looked like a normal kid.

She even brags about hitting personal lifting records in the game

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They already did, wtf.

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ArianaGrandSlam posted...

I have literally nothing but concern for RE4Make, even after RE2Make was my favorite game of 2019. Theres almost no way to go but down from RE4 because its that good, RE4 is still on every modern console, and I cant see them doing anything but fucking it up after RE3Make was lackluster

They should be remaking a game that needs it instead of remaking a quality game, like Code Veronica. Same thing with TLOU, it still looks and plays great, why the fuck would you remake it?

I mean tbf, even the original RE3 was considered a step down from RE2

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I don't care for this series either way, but sometimes it feels like this series holds Sony back. Like they keep looping back to it, not even continuing or building on it, but just re-releasing it.

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Kitt posted...

Well that's unnecessary. The game isn't even that old

How is it unnecessary? The point of making is games is to make money. This will sell very well. I don't get this thought process at all

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CM_Ponch posted...

I don't care for this series either way, but sometimes it feels like this series holds Sony back. Like they keep looping back to it, not even continuing or building on it, but just re-releasing it.

Final Fantasy X is the tenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, developed and published by Squaresoft. It was released in July 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and has since been re-released as part of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, for PlayStation 4 in 2015, for Microsoft Windows in 2016, and for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019.

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As someone who got the Platinum on the remaster AND beat it on Grounded mode, no fucking thanks

If Sony was this concerned that they didn't have enough grimdark mature exclusives to sell the PS5 then they probably should've fucking commissioned some more instead of just riding on a handful of PS4 games

Also expecting so many retcons to make TLOU2 try to seem presentable in comparison lol

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Makeveli_lives posted...

Final Fantasy X is the tenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, developed and published by Squaresoft. It was released in July 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and has since been re-released as part of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013, for PlayStation 4 in 2015, for Microsoft Windows in 2016, and for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in 2019.

Yes

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ArianaGrandSlam posted...

I have literally nothing but concern for RE4Make, even after RE2Make was my favorite game of 2019. Theres almost no way to go but down from RE4 because its that good, RE4 is still on every modern console, and I cant see them doing anything but fucking it up after RE3Make was lackluster

They should be remaking a game that needs it instead of remaking a quality game, like Code Veronica. Same thing with TLOU, it still looks and plays great, why the fuck would you remake it?

Amen, Resident Evil 4 is my favorite game of all time and unless they're willing to fully embrace all the cheesy, nutty stuff that made it so good, it's gonna be the worst of the 3 remakes by far

Interesting that Sony doesn't seem interested in remastering TLOU2 for the PS5 like they did the first game for the PS4. Almost as if they know nobody wants it

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Its just a way for people that missed on and or want to replay it on current gen is all. I dont see why anyone would care what a studio decides to do that doesnt affect their lives whatsoever.

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--Zero- posted...

Its just a way for people that missed on and or want to replay it on current gen is all. I dont see why anyone would care what a studio decides to do that doesnt affect their lives whatsoever.

This in particular is stupid though because the first is free with plus to all users on PS5. It would have to be a significant upgrade to be worth it.

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AvantgardeAClue posted...

Interesting that Sony doesn't seem interested in remastering TLOU2 for the PS5 like they did the first game for the PS4. Almost as if they know nobody wants it

you know they'll most likely give it a PS5 boost, right, like with other PS4 games rather than do a full on remaster

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I can't wait for the remake to include a flashback scene with Joel in a Klan hood.

TheDurinator posted...

I can't wait for the remake to include a flashback scene with Joel in a Klan hood.

Lol, Joel loses his job at the beginning of TLOU because of an old twitter post of him in an insensitive halloween costume.

Probably retcon Abby into the first game somehow.

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What the fuck is the point? The game is barely 2 generations old and got a remaster just a while ago.

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The most unnecessary remake in the history of remakes. I like the first game a lot, but it doesn't need a fucking remake.

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The Graphics have not made that great up a grade grade since the remaster. Why would they do this besides a money grab ?

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As covid has made the development of new games a challenge, a remaster seems like a quick way to generate revenue during what would otherwise be a fairly slow period for Sony.

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Antifar posted...

As covid has made the development of new games a challenge, a remaster seems like a quick way to generate revenue during what would otherwise be a fairly slow period for Sony.

This sounds like a top to bottom remake. And besides they already have a remaster.

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Report: renowned gamer Green Butter will not be purchasing remake of The Last of Us 1

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