As you know, Sony announced that The Last of Us Online, a project that was developed by Naughty Dog for about 4 years and expected to attract great interest from players, was canceled. We will talk about this development that also confused the Naughty Dog front and how a game like Concord, which was released recently and not even 100 people played, was able to be released.
The Last of Us Online was supposed to be groundbreaking with its online modes
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier stated in a statement he made last week that Sony had lost a lot of money with the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, and that Sony had paid a heavy price for this situation. So why couldn’t Sony and Naughty Dog release the game? Then why did they come up with a fiasco like Concord?
Concord was a game developed by Firewalk Studios for eight years, but it was a huge disappointment upon its release. The game’s peak concurrent player count on Steam is only 697, which is a very low number for a big-budget game. This raises questions about how the game was approved for development and why it wasn’t cancelled.
Industry experts say there are several reasons for Concord’s failure: First, it was released at a time when the hero shooter genre was losing popularity, and second, it was poorly timed, as Valve was offering a similar game for free.
Additionally, the character design and the game’s storytelling were also heavily criticized. The excessive use of Marvel-style humorous dialogue was found boring and, to put it mildly, ‘indifferent’ by players.
The cancellation of The Last of Us Online is a completely different topic of discussion. Shelving a project that has already been announced, has a fan base and has probably invested hundreds of millions of dollars, reveals Sony’s inconsistency in project management. Moreover, this project was tied to one of PlayStation’s most important IPs and had the potential to create synergy with the HBO series.
The contrast between the fates of these two projects calls into question Sony’s decision-making. Continuing development on a game with seemingly insufficient market research, such as Concord, while canceling a massive title like The Last of Us Online raises questions about the company’s priorities.
Industry analysts have varying opinions on what’s behind Sony’s decisions: Some experts suggest the company is shifting its stance on risk and moving toward safer projects, while others believe PlayStation’s struggles in the live-service games market have affected its approach to such projects.
The Last of Us Online may return one day, but considering that live service games are productions that are expected to be supported in the long term, it’s clear that Sony can’t take that risk.
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