Both TLOU2 and Horizon: Forbidden West's development budgets were accidentally revealed in court. The former had a budget of $220 million and the latter had a budget of $212 million.
I think it brings serious question on whether TLOU2 was actually profitable. Yes, it sold 10 million copies, but it took 2 years and a huge discounts (often times to $9.99) to achieve that milestone. Not to mention, some of that money goes to Sony and retailers, and the number doesn't factor in the marketing budget.
Frequently, a movie or game’s failure doesn’t materialize until the next sequel bombs. People saw The Last Jedi in droves because they were entertained by The Force Awakens. Post TLJ, the Star Wars box office collapsed. Based on the divisive reactions to TLJ, it’s safe to say that movie was the catalyst for the collapse. TLJ “made” $1.3 billion, but it also lost billions.
I think TLOU2's performance greatly factored into the multiplayer getting shelved indefinitely. It's not like this is Naughty Dog's first foray into multiplayer; the studio has had experience since Uncharted 2. The fact that Naughty Dog needed Bungie to give the 'ok' (Bungie gave it a thumbs down) when Sony used to let it do whatever it wanted speaks volumes.
I’d never even heard of this. What, they prototyped TLOU2 multiplayer, Sony got cold feet and ran it by Bungie (I didn’t even know Sony owned them at this point), and then Bungie said “it stinks”? That’s a real kick in the balls to Naughty Dog. I wonder why Sony was suddenly second-guessing that team? TLOU2 was riding high on critical praise at the time and anyone who questioned sales was declared a bigot sandwich.
We actually had a glimpse of what the multiplayer was like from the leaks back in 2020. In 2019, Naughty Dog decided to make the singleplayer and multiplayer separate because the scope of both grew immense. Imagine working on the multiplayer that is at a scale of a full-fledged 'AAA' game for 5+ years and you even had a playable build 3 years ago. And then, you found out you need permission from another studio and that studio said "It's trash".
As of why Sony is now second-guessing Naughty Dog... well, the accolades were all an illusion. There were some gaming sites like TheGamer that shilled TLOU2 even 2-3 years later.
I wonder why Sony was suddenly second-guessing that team?
Because it wasn't the same team that delivered Uncharted 1 - 3 under Hennig's direction, or even the same team that made the original TLOU under Strayley and Druckmann's supervision.
it was Druckmann's team, made up of activists and replacements who had likely never tackled the kind of multiplayer they were aiming to make:
Both TLOU2 and Horizon: Forbidden West's development budgets were accidentally revealed in court. The former had a budget of $220 million and the latter had a budget of $212 million.
I think it brings serious question on whether TLOU2 was actually profitable. Yes, it sold 10 million copies, but it took 2 years and a huge discounts (often times to $9.99) to achieve that milestone. Not to mention, some of that money goes to Sony and retailers, and the number doesn't factor in the marketing budget.
Frequently, a movie or game’s failure doesn’t materialize until the next sequel bombs. People saw The Last Jedi in droves because they were entertained by The Force Awakens. Post TLJ, the Star Wars box office collapsed. Based on the divisive reactions to TLJ, it’s safe to say that movie was the catalyst for the collapse. TLJ “made” $1.3 billion, but it also lost billions.
I think TLOU2's performance greatly factored into the multiplayer getting shelved indefinitely. It's not like this is Naughty Dog's first foray into multiplayer; the studio has had experience since Uncharted 2. The fact that Naughty Dog needed Bungie to give the 'ok' (Bungie gave it a thumbs down) when Sony used to let it do whatever it wanted speaks volumes.
I’d never even heard of this. What, they prototyped TLOU2 multiplayer, Sony got cold feet and ran it by Bungie (I didn’t even know Sony owned them at this point), and then Bungie said “it stinks”? That’s a real kick in the balls to Naughty Dog. I wonder why Sony was suddenly second-guessing that team? TLOU2 was riding high on critical praise at the time and anyone who questioned sales was declared a bigot sandwich.
Basically, yeah.
We actually had a glimpse of what the multiplayer was like from the leaks back in 2020. In 2019, Naughty Dog decided to make the singleplayer and multiplayer separate because the scope of both grew immense. Imagine working on the multiplayer that is at a scale of a full-fledged 'AAA' game for 5+ years and you even had a playable build 3 years ago. And then, you found out you need permission from another studio and that studio said "It's trash".
As of why Sony is now second-guessing Naughty Dog... well, the accolades were all an illusion. There were some gaming sites like TheGamer that shilled TLOU2 even 2-3 years later.
Because it wasn't the same team that delivered Uncharted 1 - 3 under Hennig's direction, or even the same team that made the original TLOU under Strayley and Druckmann's supervision.
it was Druckmann's team, made up of activists and replacements who had likely never tackled the kind of multiplayer they were aiming to make:
https://pixelgum.tv/gaming/2020/naughty-dog-loses-key-talent-due-to-unsustainable-crunch/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizlanier/2020/07/28/over-2000-people-worked-on-the-last-of-us-part-2-but-that-number-should-have-been-higher/?sh=790bb3373018