The Last Of Us Gets Yet Another Remaster

• The Playstation 5 Remaster you’ve all been waiting for is here.
• That’s right back again, The Last Of Us Part II finally arrives on PlayStation 5 on January 19th, 2024!

• Its been less than a year since the PR disaster of Naughty Dog’s second pass at remastering The Last Of Us (Part 1) landed on PC.
• The PS5 edition fared better back in September 2022, but mention of the PC release of Part II is conspicuous in its absence.
  • Broadly with Part I, it was criticized by for being a (largely) inconsequential repackaging of the original, especially given the multiplayer component was cut & the already more-than-competent “The Last Of Us Remastered” from the PS4 was easily accessible for PS5 users.
• So how does Part II Remastered fare?

• They’ve learned their lesson (somewhat).
• There’s the expected updates, but there’s also “new” things you couldn’t otherwise get.
  • The QOL & performance improvements from last year’s Part 1 are carried forward alongside new gameplay in the form of a Speedrun Mode, “Lost Levels” being re-added & a Roguelike mode, “No Return”.
• Lost Levels isn’t quite a Mario Expansion pack though, instead being a behind the scenes look, featuring segments that didn’t quite make the final build of the game. As Naughty Dog put it:

(Lost Levels are) playable sequences previously cut from the game. These aren’t fully finished levels, but rather early-development slices that not only let you see some new glimpses of Part II’s world, but also include embedded developer commentary to give them richer context. Explore these spaces and hear directly from the team about the intention of aspects of each level…

• The Last Of Us: No Return meanwhile, is a “a roguelike survival mode designed to let players prove their mettle in randomized encounters”.
  • Mechanically, this is the biggest change. It’s re-using environments from the game, changing up the combat encounters and re-using bosses.
  • While it’s a remix - It’s very much “game” first, rather than “narrative” first as the original was.
• Though as more than a few on Social Media have pointed out… there’s more than a little confusion over why this new content couldn’t also be made available for PS4 owners as well based on initial comparisons.

• Compared to the original remaster though, the biggest difference is the price point.
  • PS5 direct purchase price is unknown - assumed to be $70
  • The Upgrade Path however goes back to the PS5 launch - $10 for users to go from PS4 to PS5

• But one thing to keep in mind is just how much these remasters seemingly serve as ground laying for Naughty Dog’s teams
  • Polishing and updating the game means an easy entry path for newer staff
  • This also lets Naughty Dog as a whole get development pipelines in place for making the most of the PS5
  • And especially in the case of No Return - it lets the team experiment with something that players will actually get to try.
• Remember how there’s meant to be a multiplayer extraction/multiplayer experience coming out at some point?
  • We do have to wonder how much of No Return is making use of tech or content being worked on as part of TLOU Factions II, the standalone multiplayer experience that has been reportedly (by Kotaku) put “basically on ice at this point”.
• Overall though, this is yet another example of where the language around these types of products does them a disservice, and the specific expectations around Games as a medium causes problems.
  • Why isn’t this a Director’s Cut like with Ghost of Tsushima? Especially when the inclusion of missing scenes and directors commentary puts it in that ballpark.
  • And why isn’t it just a straight upgrade to the original, patching in the new content (even at the original fidelity) for all users?
• It’s primarily because audiences have shown they’ll turn up for a remaster, because that word gives confidence that you’ll get the thing you like but shinier.
  • And Sony wants more sales - whether that be full box price or an upgrade.
  • That this would probably have been commissioned to be launching ahead of the second season of the hit TV show (before the strikes) would have likely helped too.
• This way - Sony get to justifiably keep the game at full RRP for longer - and keep that revenue up.

Or you could just do it like Valve

• 25 Years Ago Half Life released and changed PC gaming forever - and now there’s a new definitive edition of the game!
  • Valve won’t even charge you $10.
  • In fact they gave it away for free all weekend.
• The 25th Anniversary update comes with:
  • The two separate campaigns of Half Life Uplink and Half Life Further Data - both previously distributed via third party CDs
  • 4 New Multiplayer maps from current Valve Designers
  • Modern Graphics options (Widescreen FOV/texture smoothing toggles, Software rendering on Linux, UI Scaling and lighting fixes)
  • New gamepad and steam network support
  • Steamdeck Verified
• And in addition - they paid Danny O’Dwyer’s new premium documentary production company Secret Tape to produce an hour long documentary for them on the making of Half Life.

• The restoration of cut content, the staff commentary, the updates to graphics and additional features - it’s not hard to draw the comparison to TLOU2 above.
  • Broadly similar updates, broadly similar intentions of keeping the game up to date - but entirely different products and price points.
• So what’s the difference?
  • Well The Last of Us is (at this point) all Naughty Dog makes.
  • That they need to train up staff and produce something for Sony means they’re going to keep building more Last of Us and it needs to offer a premium product that’s a good return on investment
  • Sure Sony could do all that - and they’d get some great PR for updating the game for existing users.
  • But the sales impact would be negligable.
• While for Valve Half Life is deeply important.
  • But it’s also a rounding error on their budget - because everyone and their dog already has a copy and they functionally don’t need to care about money because Steam.
    • That all of this helps serve as a further marketing beat for the new Steam Deck OLED, and is a reminder of Valve’s ability to make games in general doesn’t hurt.
    • Neither does the fact that Half Life doesn’t need hyper realistic (and hyper expensive) graphics updates
    • So Half Life as a definitive edition in 2023 gets to be a vanity project that people contribute to out of love - and that Valve get to distribute as one.
  • Because their incentives are different.
• It’s always worth thinking in those terms - especially when something seems wildly egregious like the original The Last of Us Part 1 remaster and when Sony inevitably asks for $70 in January.
  • These two stories happened to drop at the same time - and it’s very easy to draw the comparison of two companies working on their flagship franchises and updating them for new audiences.
• Sony could absolutely drop all the remastered updates for free on PS5, and give a free update for PS4 owners to the console.
  • But they don’t want to - because doing so would both devalue their premium brand, and deny them further revenue.
• And Valve could just as easily have charged $5 for the update to Half Life - or locked the documentary away inside the game files - but they don’t need to and now they get a much bigger audience and PR win.
• It’s all about balancing audience expectations and sheer corporate interests when you revisit these old products.
  • Or if you’re Embracer you can just throw both out the window because you messed up so bad.

Embracer Continue Facing Major Hardship Over Star Wars (KOTOR) Plans

• Ostensibly - there’s a Knights of the Old Republic remake being worked on.
• Owner of the project is conglomerate Embracer, who as IGN have highlighted are fully aware of the interest in the story.

During a financial presentation, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors remained tight-lipped when asked how he was feeling about the KOTOR remake. “I notice that anything I say to this becomes a headline, so that is my only comment,” he responded.

• Since then the project is on ice according to Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb. The topic arose on his Game Mess Mornings podcast over the weekend:

“This game is not being worked on right now. Just, full stop, this game is not being worked on in any way, at any studio… Looked into it a little bit, I mean I don’t think this is news to most of you, I think you guys could piece this together if you’ve been listening to this. And, Sony, stepping away, and scrubbing mention of Knights from Social Media & YouTube. You could put 2 & 2 together there. But just to 100% confirm it. This game is NOT being worked on right now.

• It seems pretty clear that with the game already in trouble - and Embracer then getting into more trouble this year - they’ve simply decided that the return on investment isn’t worth it right now.
  • So into Embracer’s IP vault it goes, presumably until the contract with Disney expires.
• But that project wasn’t the only KOTOR-related work Aspyr had been committed to that vanished.
• Stephen Totilo has been following the class action lawsuit around the “Restored Content DLC” for KOTOR II’s Switch port over at Axios.
• This sees a group of players arguing they were duped when the “Restored Content DLC” for KOTOR II’s Switch port was cancelled, after the game released and was marketed with it.

Aspyr has never said why the DLC was canceled. But in a court filing, the company's co-CEO Ted Saloch said, "Aspyr believed it would be able to release the content, but a third party objected and Aspyr was unable to do so."

• It’s a tale as old as gaming - developer thinks they can ship feature, life gets in the way, audiences are frustrated.
• But the interesting wrinkle here is the “third party” comment.
• This is a play with lots of actors (Disney, Lucasfilm, Bioware, the modders who restored the content in the first place) and that Aspyr are confident enough in hiding behind one of them in court just shows there’s a so much that can go on when you start remastering games.