MovieChat Forums > The Last of Us: Part II (2020) Discussion > After the Last of Us Part II fiasco, Nau...

After the Last of Us Part II fiasco, Naughty Dog is done

posted 4 years ago by kukuxu (5409)
21 replies | jump to latest

Naughty Dog is very much done as a company.

First, they went full woke, firing every developer that didn't fit ideologically, included Amy Henning, the one that created the big franchises. The consequence was they crunched and abused the remaining dev. That crunch is considered the worst crunch in a videogame company to date.

Crunch once again in the spotlight after damning report on The Last of Us 2 developer Naughty Dog
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-03-14-crunch-once-again-in-the-spotlight-after-damning-report-on-the-last-of-us-2-developer-naughty-dog

Most of classic devs in the company have quit, either because they were fired because ideological reasons, or because they wanted to have a life. The making of this game burnt the whole team.

70% QUIT | Naughty Dog Is Eating Itself Alive: The Last Of Us 2 BURNING Through Staff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJdwQmpGs2E

Besides that, there were leaks from the game, probably from a crunched dev that was sick of them. The gameplay showed in the leaks (several hours) was widely disliked. Naughty Dog started to shut down youtube channels, included the ones that didn't show any footage or spoiler and just reported how the footage was disliked.

The Last of Us Part 2 PR NIGHTMARE! Naughty Dog STRIKES YouTube Channels Over Leaks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9tYmQxOaa4

The company is very much done. After this game, there's no team anymore and the best devs are gone.

[–] olioz (3314) 4 years ago

The reviews are glowing. Pretty much everyone is saying that the game is a masterpiece.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

You mean the "official" reviews, don't you? Yeap, that was expected. The main character for half of the game is a tranny, it seems to be the first tranny main character in a AAA game, so it was already obvious they were gonna say the game is a masterpiece, no matter the real quality.

[–] olioz (3314) 4 years ago

I don't see how the main characters sexual preferences affect the overall quality of the game at all.. What most sensible people are looking for in this game is a great emotional story, memorable characters, good gameplay, stealthy action and some genuine scares. It seems to be ticking all those boxes.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

I don't see how the main characters sexual preferences affect the overall quality of the game at all

Where did I say the game was widely criticized because of the main character being a tranny?

1. The leaked footage was widely criticized for its bad quality as a game. Youtube videos showing that footage or even just criticizing the quality of the game were deleted because it was leaked footage (interesting fact: positive reviews of leaked footage don't use to get copyright strikes).

2. It was predictable that mainstream magazines would review the game as "masterpiece" no matter its quality, because of the tranny character in a AAA game and the political agenda. That's already happening.

Both are different things. Please, don't combine them to make your own straw-man fallacies.

[–] olioz (3314) 4 years ago

"Where did I say the game was widely criticized because of the main character being a tranny?"

Sorry, I misunderstood you. But it still seems like some people have a problem with that and I don't see why that is an issue.

"It was predictable that mainstream magazines would review the game as "masterpiece" no matter its quality, because of the tranny character in a AAA game and the political agenda. That's already happening."

Okay, I have read a bunch of reviews and all they talk about are the aspects that I mentioned in my earlier post, good story, gameplay etc. And all of those things seem to work wonderfully. If the game really was a trainwreck I'm sure the reviews would point that out.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Well, I'll leave you a couple of videos of a youtube channel called Upper Echelon Gamers. It's quite serious and unbiased.

What I mean with unbiased? In this one, called 'In defense of The Last of Us 2', he argued that the game should be given a chance. He argues that even though the leaked footage (several hours of footage) looked like bad storytelling and preordering was a bad idea, it could happen that the footage doesn't show the whole picture of the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIECJtrdyBM

This later video, however, is about how the scores of this game have been manipulated. If the game was really that good, that wouldn't seem necessary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a6B4fFaXCU

We're talking about videos criticizing this game being taken down. Entire channels being taken down (no kidding). Scores manipulated. The company has gone woke and must be protected no matter what, a lot of money has been spent in this game, and it must be recovered, no matter the real final quality.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Mainstream magazines don't give them glowing reviews because of the woke crap, they do it because they don't want to piss off a large customers of ad space in their magazine. That has been a big problem with most every type of magazine the editors are often afraid to let their writer be honest if they think it will chase away the companies buying ad space.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Yes and no.

Just think about the games from eastern Europe countries, like CD Projekt's Cyberpunk, or Kingdom Come. They have been bashed. Or the last Ghost of Tsushima, that has been extremely well received by Japanese press... not so much by western one.

https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/07/20/ghost-of-tsushima-receives-rave-reviews-from-japanese-audiences-upsetting-western-critics/

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/14/ghost-of-tsushima-review-samurai-thrills-kurosawa-cinematic-combat

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/features/ghost-tsushima-review-beautiful-banal-samurai-crusade/

There's a double standard. And it's about ads, but not only about ads. There's politics involved too.

[–] Bossdog677 (1452) 2 years ago

They forgot the good gameplay however through both games

[–] Fudrucker212 (20) 4 years ago

Abby isn't even trans.

[–] Roguemail (1565) 4 years ago

Exactly. Gay yes, but not trans.

I finished the game a week ago and enjoyed it. Its quite long and can feel arduous at times, but ultimately its extremely well done and very engaging.

The complaints about killing off certain characters? Why would you keep the same characters from the original and let them go through the same or similar scenarios again?

There has to be progression and development. There also have to be new characters.

But there are that hard-core of fans who treat the original characters like their own children, and act like they have been murdered when they deviate from their character from the original.

[–] Fudrucker212 (20) 4 years ago

Abby isn't gay either.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

Abby is a tranny. She clearly has a male body.

And I'm not saying a female muscular body. I'm saying a male body.

[–] jewoogle (2269) 4 years ago

she looks like macho man randy savage

[–] LenkoPenko (157) 4 years ago

I have no idea what the original intent for the character was, but there doesn't seem to be anything to imply that Abby was born male in the final product.

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2652) 4 years ago

She can't have been born male. I believe she's supposed to be a similar age to Ellie. They were born years after the outbreak kicked off. I find it hard to believe she was able to find a suitable location for surgery, a surgeon willing to to do the surgery and all the drugs she would need.

I think her body is just the result of the writers creating a gross exaggeration of a "non typical" female body for Internet points. "But her figure is actually based on female crossfi..." Yeah. I'm sure someone that spends hours and hours of every day keeping their body in that condition. Consuming thousands of calories every day to keep up. Representing a tiny fraction of women. Good luck doing that during the apocalypse. It would make far more sense for her to have the body of a female MMA fighter or something.

[–] kukuxu (5409) 4 years ago

I think her body is just the result of the writers creating a gross exaggeration of a "non typical" female body for Internet points.

I think there's a simpler explanation: she was a tranny. The body is clearly a male one.

Probably they chose to dismiss the 'tranny' stuff last minute, because whatever reasons, but it was too late to change models and animations, so they changed a few lines in the script and went with it.

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2652) 4 years ago

Possible. Something that throws off that idea is the sex scene. The dude would have noticed he was banging a guy. Plus, putting it in a butt requires patience and a bit of work lol.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Nope, it just requires violence&vaseline (or spit, snot, diarhea etc)

[–] Bloodworth79 (5575) 4 years ago

Is so disgusting...wtf were they thinking?

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

Game of the Year 2020