The Last of Us Part II breaks Uncharted 4 sales record

By Jon Silman Published June 23, 2020

The numbers are out and not only is The Last of Us Part II is one of the most significant video game releases of the past few years, but it’s also the best selling PS4 launch title of all time in the U.K.

Physical copies of the game in the U.K. have outsold every title ever for the Playstation 4 console, and it broke the previous record for launch copies sold by another Naughty Dog game — Uncharted 4, which was released in 2016. According to sales charts reported by GI.biz, The Last of Us Part II beat the previous record by 1%.

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Those numbers do not take digital downloads into account, so the total figure could be different. It also makes The Last of Us Part II the best selling game of the year in the U.K., beating out Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch by 40%.

The sales are indicative of the popularity of the franchise as a whole, and the first game in the series is widely considered a modern masterpiece. Its popularity doesn’t just exist in the video game world, either. There’s a Last of Us podcast and an HBO series in development from Johan Renck, who directed Chernobyl.

The new game is also much darker than the first, but fans are still eager to continue the story of protagonist Ellie, and Joel, her grizzled father figure in the story.

Digital Trends gave the game a 5-star review and named it an Editors’ Choice title.

“The Last of Us was lauded for its emotional narrative that left players reeling, and Naughty Dog’s sequel finds a way to expand on that. The Last of Us Part II is a gut punch in the best way,” the review notes.

The game has not been without controversy, and several spoilers were leaked before its release, involving various plot points and the ending. The Last of Us Part II has also faced review-bombing on the aggregation site Metacritic.

Many users spammed the site with negative reviews hours after its release, which dragged down its user score. The game has a 95 rating and is considered a “must play” on the reviewer side, but the negative reviews outweigh the positive ones by almost 10,000 on the user side.

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Gaming

The Last of Us Online’s cancellation is the right move for Naughty Dog

The second piece of The Last of Us multiplayer concept art shows two players walking toward a beached yacht.

After a long period of silence on the project, and numerous reports of a beleaguered and troubled development, Naughty Dog has finally pulled the plug on its The Last of Us online multiplayer project. It was originally planned as an online mode paired with The Last of Us Part II, much like Factions accompanied the first game. But at some point, the scope and direction of the mode was changed and it was decided that it would be a standalone title. Over three years later, with nothing but concept art shown from the game, it has b4een officially scrapped.

While that may come as a disappointment to Naughty Dog fans looking forward to its take on a live-service game set in The Last of Us universe, its cancellation is a necessity for the company. It's a hard decision that will allow the studio to continue doing what it does best rather than giving in to what's trendy.
Cutting losses
Naughty Dog's official statement on why it decided to halt production on this project paints a very clear picture: the studio wanted to put the same amount of time, care, and ambition into every component of The Last of Us Online as it would a single-player title. After evolving into a full live-service effort, upholding that level of quality would have become the studio's sole focus. Seeing the road it was about to embark on, Naughty Dog had to choose between becoming a studio that only made The Last of Us Online, or one that could continue to create single-player experiences that have helped define PlayStation's modern image. It was both a hard decision and an obvious choice.

Gaming

Naughty Dog confirms The Last of Us Part II Remastered following leak

Key art for The Last of Us Part II Remastered

Naughty Dog officially announced and released the first trailer for a remaster of 2020's critically acclaimed The Last of Us Part II. The developer was forced to announce The Last of Us Remastered Part II Remastered a bit early after it leaked Friday afternoon. Thankfully, the wait for the remaster won't be long, as it's coming to the PlayStation 5 in two months.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered - Announce Trailer | PS5 Games

Gaming

Naughty Dog devs suffer layoffs, reportedly impacting Last of Us multiplayer spinoff

Ellie looking concerned.

A new report revealed that Naughty Dog has ended several contracts it had with developers early, laying off around 25 developers. This had a negative impact on The Last of Us multiplayer game but, more importantly, is chillingly just the latest batch of layoffs in a rough couple of months for the video game industry.
These contracted developers were informed that their contracts were ending prematurely at the end of October and that they'd get no severance afterward, according to the report at Kotaku. Reportedly, most of these layoffs at Naughty Dog, PlayStation's darling studio that employs over 400 developers, come from the quality assurance, art, and production teams. According to Kotaku, Naughty Dog asked its developers to keep quiet about it. That didn't happen, though, with developers telling Kotaku not only about the layoffs but that the multiplayer The Last of Us game "while not completely canceled, is basically on ice at this point."
Concept art for Naughty Dog's Last of Us multiplayer title. Naughty Dog
These layoffs are unfortunate but sadly not uncommon for the game industry. Throughout the last few weeks, studios like Ubisoft, Creative Assembly, Ascendant Studios, and Epic Games have all laid off people. Epic, in particular, cut a whopping 16% of its workforce despite the fact that Fortnite is one of the most popular video games. Then, there are studios like Saints Row's Volition, support studio Puny Human, and Boomerang X's Dang are closing entirely.
Although 2023 has been a year full of fantastic games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Street Fighter 6, and Baldur's Gate 3, it's unfortunate that it has been so rough for the developers who actually make the games in this gigantic industry. It's clear something needs to change.