What has transpired over the past 2-3 days has to be very unprecedented for the video gaming industry. There have been leaks for almost every highly anticipated movie and/or video game.
But this leak, will not only highly impact the developers and the company Naughty Dog, but the most loyal of fans as well. Mainly because of what the leaks contain.
As most gamers know, The Last Of Us Part II is one of the most anticipated sequels to a video game, possibly ever. But before I indirectly talk about the leaks, I want to talk about the impact the first game had on its fans, and what the future holds for Naughty Dog as a whole.
If you were to ask my opinion on this game, this is a game that I believe that everyone should play through at least once in your lifetime, if you are a gamer that is.
I believe that the largest lesson that TLOU preaches is about grief and acceptance.
In the opening 5-10 minutes of TLOU, the Cordyceps Brain Infection or CBI begins to emerge and plague the entire world, starting with Austin, where main character Joel and his young daughter Sarah lived.
Joel, his younger brother Tommy, and Sarah navigate downtown Austin to try to find away out.
As the three attempt to flee the city, they’re blocked off by a military soldier, whose orders were to shoot anyone who seemed to be infected, which the three weren’t.
The soldier shoots and misses Joel, but hits Sarah in the abdomen, leaving her to die in her father’s arms. It was one of the most emotional scenes I have ever witnessed in any video game. It was difficult for me to continue the game after this scene.
Twenty years later, civilization has been decimated by the infection. Survivors live in heavily policed quarantine zones, independent settlements, and nomadic groups. Joel works as a smuggler with his partner Tess in the quarantine zone in the North End of Boston.
Joel and Tess find that their weapons cache had been stolen and sold to a woman named Marlene, the leader of the rebel militia group, the Fireflies.
Marlene makes a deal with Joel and Tess to double their weapons cache, if they smuggle a package for her outside of the city.
Turns out that the package is 14 year-old Ellie. Joel and Tess comply and make their way out of the city with Ellie. While making their way out of the city, they’re met with resistance from the military, and from the struggle, Joel and Tess discover that Ellie is “infected,” due to the bite mark on her arm.
And if you have seen any zombie movie, if you get bitten, you’re going to turn.
But Ellie’s bite mark was three weeks old, which made her immunity the key to a cure.
From the start of the job, Joel only looked at Ellie as a job to complete, but as the game progressed, they grow closer together, like father and daughter. And Joel protects Ellie like his late daughter Sarah.
That’s where the grief and acceptance come into play for this game. Every single human being has to experience grief at some point in their lives, and yes, acceptance is a hard stage to reach.
But the one thing that TLOU gave us, despite the grief and acceptance…
Hope.
Listen to the dialogue between Ellie and Joel.
Despite the twenty years of grieving that Joel has done over Sarah, he found purpose, he found something to fight for. Well, someone.
With TLOU ending on a cliffhanger, fans were anticipating a sequel. In 2018, the wish was granted. Naughty Dog announced that The Last Of Us 2 was in the works.
The Last Of Us 2 was in development and was given an early 2020 release date. But the release was pushed back from February 2020 to May 2020 due to lack of senior development engineers and high turnover ratio.
That we will get to momentarily.
And due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release date was pushed back indefinitely.
Here is where things took a hard left turn. A few days ago, it was previously rumored that the leaks were due to disgruntled Naughty Dog employees who were upset about the company’s crunch culture or other issues.
However, it appears as though those rumors were unfounded. According to Sony, the people responsible for leaking The Last of Us 2 spoilers are not affiliated with Naughty Dog or Sony. As to who The Last of Us 2 leakers are, Sony has so far declined to reveal any additional information, as the investigation is ongoing.
Thousands of fans, including myself, got curious and looked at the leaks.
I, along with a large majority of fans who saw the leaks, are livid with how the story is supposedly going to play out.
I have read quite a few articles about the leaks, and it seems that after talking to current and former Naughty Dog employees, all of whom decided to remain anonymous, the crunch culture and political bias of the game played a part in the workers leaving Naughty Dog or planning to leave.
I won’t get into the political bias because that would involve spoiling part of the rumored plot of the sequel.
One article I read by Jason Schreier, he talked about the culture of perfectionism portrayed at Naughty Dog.
Many who have worked at Naughty Dog over the years describe it as a duality—as a place that can be simultaneously the best and the worst workplace in the world. Working at Naughty Dog means designing beloved, critically acclaimed games alongside artists and engineers who are considered some of the greatest in their fields.
One major consequence of this culture has been attrition. Of the 20 non-lead designers in the credits of 2016’s Uncharted 4, a whopping 14—70 per cent—are no longer at the studio, which has had wide-ranging effects on the development of The Last of Us II and led to questions about the continued viability of the Naughty Dog approach.
These days, veteran Naughty Dog employees describe the design department as a sea of unfamiliar faces. With 70 per cent of the non-lead designers and a significant number of artists who worked on Uncharted 4 now gone, the company has had to fill those roles with less experienced staff, many of whom hadn’t worked on Naughty Dog games before The Last of Us II.
Every newcomer means weeks’ or months’ worth of training and hard lessons about how the rest of the team works. A task that might take a veteran designer two hours could take twice or three times as long for a newer employee, and it can be hard to know what the directors want until you’ve been working there long enough.
70% turnover rate.
70%!
I don’t even think McDonalds or Burger King has a turnover rate that high.
I’m going to be honest, Naughty Dog and Sony’s statement about the leaker not being a disgruntled former employee, I don’t buy it for one second. Not one.
When it comes to the Uncharted series and TLOU, it is obvious that Naughty Dog not only expects, but thrives on perfection in their games all the way down to a single grain of sand on a beach. And we as the consumer, absolutely love it.
But at what cost is it to the developers who most likely worked 15-hour days under immense pressure and scrutiny?
From what it sounds like, Naughty Dog achieves perfection in their production.
But like everything in life, perfection comes at a great cost.
And with these leaks, whoever the mystery leaker is, they proved the cost was too great.
And the company that strives for perfection, is now in a dire situation far from it.
PCR! 