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The Last Of Us Online Cancelation “Made Some Heads Roll”

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
The Last of Us Factions

Up until December 2023, by all accounts, The Last of Us Online was still in development, it just hitting some roadblocks along the way, mostly spurred on by Bungie, which has its own issues right now. Now, though, we got some details about the aftermath of its demise and how it led to some heads rolling.

During Friends Per Second, industry journalist Jason Schrier talked about the Bungie layoffs and Sony’s push forward into the live service market, noting it as “trend chasing.” Indeed, most of Sony’s live service endeavors have not, to put it lightly, not been fruitful, with its upcoming attempt, Firewalk’s Concord, not looking too promising that it will stand out among the rest of the hero shooter live service games.

It’s a good thing that Naughty Dog avoided the dreaded live service pit, but the cancelation “made some heads roll” at Sony.

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No, The Last Of Us PS5 Multiplayer Project Isn’t Dead

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
The Last of Us Factions

All’s been pretty quiet in terms of The Last of Us Factions, Naughty Dog’s multiplayer project, since things got shaken up after a look-over by Bungie until now. The game is slated to be the Cali-based studio’s most ambitious project to date.

Game director Vinit Agarwal took to Twitter, after not posting since the end of August, to offer up a small update packaged into him declaring that he won Super Mario Wonder. So, apparently, there is a small team heading the charge of Factions.

We don’t know the number of people working on the scaled-back project, but we can assume it’s a very tight-knit team with Agarwal overseeing. We also caution people to taper their expectations as this is all speculation until Naughty Dog itself comes forward to either re-announce the project or drop some new information.

What do you think? Do you hope this marks production revamping? Do you even actually want a multiplayer set in The Last of Us universe? Let us know below!

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The Last Of Us Factions Allegedly Scaled Back

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
The Last of Us Factions

Rumors are spinning that Naughty Dog has scaled back The Last of Us Factions as Bungie raises questions about the studio’s ability to keep players engaged. It hasn’t been canceled, however.

On the heels of it not appearing as part of the PlayStation showcase earlier this month, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reached out to four people familiar with the project. According to these four people, a recent evaluation led to its team being reduced after Bungie looked at the planned multiplayer game.

It raised questions on how it plans to keep the player engaged for long periods of time, something that is vital for a multiplayer live-service game like The Last of Us Factions to do.

Apparently, Bloomberg was in the process of getting this piece published, reaching out to Sony and Naughty Dog for comments when the studio publicly revealed that the game needs more time. Factions has quite a bit to live up to, considering just how much has been said about it, including that it’s the studio’s most ambitious project to date.

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The Last Of Us Factions Isn’t Ready To Be Showcased

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger 0 Comments
The Last of Us Factions

The recent PlayStation showcase was a disappointment to many hoping for some real hard-hitting showcases for what’s to come for PlayStation players. Sure, some notable stuff happened like a gameplay reveal for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but one of the things fans were hoping for was some sort of update on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Factions.

Unfortunately, it appears the game was skipped over as it simply wasn’t ready to be shown off yet. Naughty Dog shared the news on Twitter, explaining that they realized more time is needed in the oven.

The long-awaited multiplayer project was expected to be part of The Last of Us Part II, but later decided it was too big in scope to just be a mode in one of its narrative adventures. Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann expressed The Last of Us Factions would be their most ambitious project to date.

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Two Free TLoU Maps, But Matchmaking Issues Persist

Ben-Dutka 5 Comments

On the plus side, you get two maps free of charge. On the downside, well…

As Naughty Dog revealed at their website , the team is still working to resolve those annoying matchmaking issues in The Last Of Us: Remastered . Said community strategist Arne Meyer:

"We are working on resolving this issue for those in our community who are still affected. We know this can be frustrating and the team here at Naughty Dog wants everyone in our community to know that working on this issue continues to be our number one priority."

They've released patches over the past two weeks, which have resulted in "significant improvements" but the matchmaking still needs help. Perhaps as an act of contrition, Naughty Dog will deliver two multiplayer maps free of charge, which is nice. But for those who want to enjoy the multiplayer action, the matchmaking issue can be quite irritating. Added Meyer:

"Believe me, the entire team at Naughty Dog completely understands how frustrating this has been for many of you in our community."

Related Game(s): The Last Of Us: Remastered

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TLoU Multiplayer Factions “An Extension” Of The Campaign

Ben-Dutka 8 Comments

There appears to be no doubt that the campaign is unbelievably awesome, but Naughty Dog has also been teasing a great multiplayer mode, too.

The developer has finally detailed the multiplayer action in their newest title, The Last Of Us . The mode is known as Factions and it will be "an extension" of the story and themes found in the single-player adventure.

All that great urgency you'll appreciate in the campaign, every bit of that drive to survive, will be evident in the multiplayer. "You'll feel tension and need to be intensely alert at all times," Naughty Dog said. You will select to be part of the Hunters or the Fireflies and each player begins with a small group of survivors that you must keep alive. That group can grow over time, too.

The first step to growing your party is to participate in a Supply Raid. You have 20 reinforcements and when they're all gone, the match enters sudden death. Then there's the Survivor section, where there are standard respawns. However, when a player dies, they're done until the next round starts. Matches are best of seven and Naughty Dog says overall, this innovative Factions multiplayer gameplay is "very tactical." You'll even do some of the same crafting you do in the campaign.

Fallen teammates can crawl toward allies in an effort to be revived before they bleed out, but remember that opponents can attack you when you're on the ground. Pre-ordering The Last Of Us at GameStop nets you the Survival Pack, which is a multiplayer expansion that features bonus experience points, a melee attack booster, a little extra cash, customizable items and two bonus skins that can be unlocked after the campaign is complete. Other retailers may have different pre-order bonuses.

Lastly, if you're so inclined, there will be a $20 DLC pass that includes day-one bonuses such as increased crafting speed, faster healing, clip capacity upgrades, etc. Do you want the most out of this incredible experience or not? This particular pass might be worth it…

Related Game(s): The Last Of Us

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