The Last Of Us 2 - now with protagonist-murdering trannies

[DemonKing]

"Violence begets violence!" is therefore hurled at the player as a lazy shibboleth.

For a game that's preaching anti-violence, the gameplay sure seems to revel in it to the point where you barely notice all the gory antics you're pulling off a couple of hours in.

 

[DalekFlay]

For a game that's preaching anti-violence, the gameplay sure seems to revel in it to the point where you barely notice all the gory antics you're pulling off a couple of hours in.

Haven't played it, but pretty sure "SEE! You're enjoying this so you're part of the problem!!!" is part of the message.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

That and the "Press X to brutally murder this person to continue the story where we berate you for brutal murder" shtick

 

[Black]

It's SpecOps all over again.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Real choice and consequence, RPG devs could learn something.
Press X, consequence is that you continue playing a shitty game.

 

[DemonKing]

For a game that's preaching anti-violence, the gameplay sure seems to revel in it to the point where you barely notice all the gory antics you're pulling off a couple of hours in.

Haven't played it, but pretty sure "SEE! You're enjoying this so you're part of the problem!!!" is part of the message.

Whoever did the chunks left after an explosion was definitely enjoying themselves too much then...

 

[Silverfish]

It's SpecOps all over again.

Pretty much, but at least SpecOps tried to make its point by having Walker completely unravel during the last third or so. The Last of Us wants to make similar points about violence and entertainment, but has its characters start, and then remain, as 2020 Portland douchebags.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Besides, "Violence breeds violence" was already done and this is a cheap knock off.

Yep, plenty of games have covered violence and revenge before and handled it better than Last of Us 2.
Seeing people trying to defend Ellie not killing Abby as "breaking the cycle of revenge" amuses me. The cycle was not broken. Ellie has killed so many characters over the course of the game, that just as Joel got someone after his head for killing a NPC in the first game (who you HAD to kill, btw), Ellie is sure to have people after her head.
Not killing Abby just robs the player of Catharsis, imo.

Pretentious writing is pretentious. As expected from a disciple of Sarkeesian.

 

[Potato Canon]

The game passes no judgement on the player's choice to use violence or avoid it. Whether you kill everything that moves, or sneak through levels without detection, there is no punishment or reward for choosing one path over the other. Unlike Metal Gear Solid V, for example, or games with any kind of karma systems.

The theme of the game's story is obsession, not violence. The game isn't moralizing, it isn't trying to teach some kind of lesson. The story is a tragedy, and an examination of its its dual protagonists at different stages on their paths of destructive single-minded obsession. That violence is involved at all is because it is a mainstream video game where you kill "bad guys", and that violent murders are a staple of dramatic popular fiction. When characters are shown to go "too far" with violent acts, it is a metaphor for loss of control, and not about the violence itself. The game delights in the violence, the violence is painstakingly and lovingly crafted and animated. Including some satisfyingly brutal melee fights with combatants just beating or slicing the shit out of each other, not just banging swords against armor.

And it has a cool trick of attaching the player to characters, then having a boss fight against those characters in gory brutal cat fights. Which is not something you get to see every day, but the trick only really works on a first time playthrough when you have no idea what the outcomes will be.

 

[DalekFlay]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...ate-its-also-sonys-second-biggest-launch-ever

"Get woke go broke!!!"

 

[Sentinel]

I don't really understand this article though. "Biggest release in 2020 so far" - what does that even mean? There's been no other big releases. Only Animal Crossing and TLOU2 didn't sell as well as it did (and won't).

 

[DalekFlay]

It's mostly useless without numbers, I just like poking the passionate culture warriors. Sony's "second biggest launch ever" is pretty crazy though, people really must have liked that first one. The long tail might be disrupted as someone said above, but I still think it's far from devastating.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

They don't mention though that a lot of people wanted to return the game.
So yes, they sold a lot, but would have lost a lot too had they not stopped returns.
Corporate propaganda is propaganda.

 

[DeepOcean]

It's mostly useless without numbers, I just like poking the passionate culture warriors. Sony's "second biggest launch ever" is pretty crazy though, people really must have liked that first one. The long tail might be disrupted as someone said above, but I still think it's far from devastating.

They are really smashing records, there was the biggest second week drop off in sales for a PS4 title title record but I guess that isnt a so flattering of a record breaking achievement to shill about.

 

[DalekFlay]

They are really smashing records, there was the biggest second week drop off in sales for a PS4 title title record but I guess that isnt a so flattering of a record breaking achievement to shill about.

They updated that article today but I don't know what they added. They don't report digital sales so I don't think anyone really knows what it sold every week. Maybe we'll get a "well it disappointed" shareholder comment in a year like Battlefield 5 got, but who knows.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

They are really smashing records, there was the biggest second week drop off in sales for a PS4 title title record but I guess that isnt a so flattering of a record breaking achievement to shill about.

They updated that article today but I don't know what they added. They don't report digital sales so I don't think anyone really knows what it sold every week. Maybe we'll get a "well it disappointed" shareholder comment in a year like Battlefield 5 got, but who knows.

Wonder how long until shareholders start demanding more transparency from these companies, kind of bizarre how they just let them do whatever without reporting any real figures.

 

[cvv]

It's mostly useless without numbers, I just like poking the passionate culture warriors.

Aren't you old enough to know that every movie or vidya initially sells on the strength of previous installments?

The Last Jedi has the second best opening day AND weekend in the history of cinema. It went on to become THE meme of the decade as the general populace caught on what a shitshow it actually was.

So yeah, get woke go broke generally works, only sometimes it takes time. These legendary IPs like TLoU or Star Wars, created in happier times, are made of granite, they don't go down fast.

 

[DalekFlay]

Aren't you old enough to know that every movie or vidya initially sells on the strength of previous installments?

I've made that point in this thread a bunch of times.

So yeah, get woke go broke generally works, only sometimes it takes time. These legendary IPs like TLoU or Star Wars, created in happier times, are made of granite, they don't go down fast.

I don't really think there's any proof it works at all, but there's a whole thread Infinitron made for me somewhere that gets into all that.

 

[Terenty]

I've indulged in some autistic detective work and that's what i found:

According to Sony they sold more than 4mil copies in the first 2-3 days. Obviously on hype alone.

According to this website that tracks playstation data
https://gamstat.com/games/

5.3 mil people bought Tlou 2 in the period from 19th of June(the release of the game) till 13th of July. It means that in 25 days after the first weekend the game sold approximately 1 mil. I would say its a pretty steep drop off.
The game,having sold more than Spider-Man initially, performed worse in the following days. I see the backlash as the most likely reason for that.

Now lets calculate the approximate budget of tlou2.

The game was in development for 4 years minimum. According to the first website i googled Naughty Dog has 460 employees. I honestly don't know how much devs earn, so somebody more knowledgeable is welcome here.

But let's say the development cost is somewhere 150mil. The ad campaign was pretty big with giant billboards, tv spots etc. Another 100mill. So 250-300 mill altogether.

Now 5.3mill sold * 60$ = 318mil $ of revenue. Although there were more expensive limited editions in the mix so maybe another +10 mil$

Doesn't look that hot now, does it.

But its all just speculation obviously maybe i'm completely off base here

 

[Olinser]

I've indulged in some autistic detective work and that's what i found:

According to Sony they sold more than 4mil copies in the first 2-3 days. Obviously on hype alone.

According to this website that tracks playstation data
https://gamstat.com/games/

5.3 mil people bought Tlou 2 in the period from 19th of June(the release of the game) till 13th of July. It means that in 25 days after the first weekend the game sold approximately 1 mil. I would say its a pretty steep drop off.
The game,having sold more than Spider-Man initially, performed worse in the following days. I see the backlash as the most likely reason for that.

Now lets calculate the approximate budget of tlou2.

The game was in development for 4 years minimum. According to the first website i googled Naughty Dog has 460 employees. I honestly don't know how much devs earn, so somebody more knowledgeable is welcome here.

But let's say the development cost is somewhere 150mil. The ad campaign was pretty big with giant billboards, tv spots etc. Another 100mill. So 250-300 mill altogether.

Now 5.3mill sold * 60$ = 318mil $ of revenue. Although there were more expensive limited editions in the mix so maybe another +10 mil$

Doesn't look that hot now, does it.

But its all just speculation obviously maybe i'm completely off base here

It's not that simple, and actually its much WORSE for Naughty Dog. You're calculating as though they get the full $60 per copy - they absolutely do not. You have all kinds of costs associated with production and shipping of the game, and the platform/store they sell it on also gets their cut. You buy from Gamestop, for instance, they get a reasonable % for themselves. Even if you buy online from the Sony store, you lose a couple dollars for the credit card company transaction at a minimum. No way to tell for sure their exact cut, but they DEFINITELY do not get to keep the full $60.

 

[DalekFlay]

Also if people do really dislike the game, for various reasons, then they'll trade it in and others will buy it used and Sony makes bupkis from that.

 

[toro]

It's mostly useless without numbers, I just like poking the passionate culture warriors. Sony's "second biggest launch ever" is pretty crazy though, people really must have liked that first one. The long tail might be disrupted as someone said above, but I still think it's far from devastating.

There is a reason why they publish this kind of garbage articles.

 

[Silverfish]

Who really wants to bet that this game won't reach 10 million?

I'm comfortable with lying after I'm proven wrong, so you're on. The Last of Us 2 will not sell 10 million copies.

5.3 mil people bought Tlou 2 in the period from 19th of June(the release of the game) till 13th of July.

 

[JDR13]

It's obviously doing pretty well, and I'm sensing that some people are butthurt about that.

 

[Väderhatt]

So yeah, get woke go broke generally works, only sometimes it takes time. These legendary IPs like TLoU or Star Wars, created in happier times, are made of granite, they don't go down fast.

Precisely, but it may take more than a decade. Even after years of controversies, Star Wars IX still made >1 billion USD, and will so forth with each new major installment (not counting Solo). Why? Because, there are still many consumers happy with that.

Same with TLoU: regardless of the quality of writing, the whole "Walking Dead" setting appeals to a impressive number of people. Adding the genuinely nice graphics, the ability to violently butcher your opponent and some illusion of "stealth", more than enough to score huge sales. And the execs at Naughty Dog know it. Sophisticated cutomers are not needed ("lower your f***ing standarts, lol!").

Still curious how well will TLoU3 fare, though...