The Last Of Us is one of those games that every one seemed to love (though I’m yet to finish it) and rumours about it jumping to the PS4 have been about for a while, though Naughty Dog have always remained pretty silent on the matter. However, that silence has now been partially broken, though in no way confirms the existence of Joel and Ellie’s tale on the PS4.
When asked about a PS4 port on the US PS Blog, Naughty Dog’s Eric Monacelli, who is the developer’s Community Strategist, replied with the following:
We’re just getting our Naughty Dog engine up and running on the PS4 as we work on the next Uncharted project. We’ll see what the future brings! :)
This could be read in a few ways, with the announcement that the engine is still in its early stages. It could be that Naughty Dog use an existing game, for example The Last Of Us, to test the upgraded engine by porting the assets over and releasing that.
Or this could mean that Naughty Dog want to get the engine running as well as possible, which could be best achieved by building a game from scratch on it, such as Uncharted 4. Once that is done, porting existing titles over to release in a couple of years, kind of a like a HD collection, would be easier and quicker.
The third and more cynical option is that this is a strategist fulfilling his job role and creating hype for the company he works for and their products.
Source: US PS Blog via GAF
Vallon
I really hope its the option with them releasing TLoU on PS4!
beeje13
I thought they were going to stick with the same engine for PS4? Sounds to me as though theyve been working on something else.
double-o-dave
That’s what I thought. Then again, it could be a real ball ache trasbferring the engine over to the PS4 platform & may be taking a while. Then again, I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to programming games :)
double-o-dave
Then again, I have no idea what trasbferring means either.
justerthought
They said they were getting the Naughty Dog engine up and running, not writing a completely new engine. What that means is that they are transferring all the code elements of the PS3 version to a new PS4 version. Yes it’s new engine but not from scratch because it is composed of code elements from the previous engine. They are using the new Uncharted as a way of testing it as they progress, to make cure they can perform all the gameplay elements we have come to expect. They will obviously add new stuff as well that only the PS4 can do and stuff they have dreamed up for U4.
Once they have the PS4 engine up and running, it would be easy to port The Last Of Us and any Uncharted game because the new PS4 engine would support all the features. They are in the process of getting to that point. Once there, they can make a final decision what needs to be ported and what new games to make.
justerthought
If they were making a completely new game engine from scratch it would not be compatible with previous games, so any ports would be out of the question because they would require a complete code re-write which would be expensive. The very fact that they are considering a port while in the process of creating a PS4 engine, indicates the engine is not from scratch. It is made up of previous components adapted for PS4 in order to maintain backwards compatibility. That compatibility will not allow you to stick a PS3 game into your PS4, it’s to allow them to make PS3 dev code work on the PS4 engine.
beeje13
I don’t know if that was meant as a reply to me but, just to confirm, I meant another game when I said ‘something else’ not another engine. Naughty dog is a big studio. It wouldn’t take their programmers this long to get a playable alpha version of a game, unless they had completely started from scratch after they finished with the last of us.
justerthought
Sorry, I mistakenly thought you meant they were dumping the whole engine and starting from scratch. My comment was really for everyone just to get the idea out there that it sounded like they are implementing the old engine inside the new PS4 engine. I totally agree that Naughty Dog will have something else in the works. I cannot wait.
mclarenrob2
Don’t get me wrong, The Last Of Us is my favourite game of all time, but now I have a PS4. What’s the point in re-releasing it?
It will still have the same ending *sobs*
Vallon
I didn’t have a PS3 so never got to play it and I bet there’s a lot of people in the same situation. Plus they stick all the DLC with it and voilà The Last of Us Definitive edition.
I’d certainly buy it!
mclarenrob2
I didn’t think of that! I’m still hoping for a co-op clicker survival mode though..
dave87fez
When my wife says “we’ll see” it actually means “no”, so I would see this as confirmation that there’ll be no more Last of Us!
WalkingP
I hope your wife doesn’t work for Naughty Dog.
Lyts1985
This sounds more to me like he’s talking about a TLOU sequel being on the PS4 than a port… They sound more interested in developing a new engine and games than upgrading older games :-)
Of course, the cynic could say this is just a way of guaranteeing headlines and stories and giving people something to talk about ;-)
As the missus would (and frequently does!) say, “we’ll see”
Devil2k
I don’t see ND re-releasing TLoU on PS4. They’re just not this kind of company. If anything, they’d probably make a sequel on a next-gen console because they always try to focus on a new project instead of doing what brings the most money to other developers on the market these days (for example EA sports and a new iteration of every one of their games, every year for every possible platform).
mikep
Hello!
I’ve started the petition “Sony Computer Entertainment & Naughty Dog, Inc: Release an enhanced version of “The Last of Us” on the ps4″ and need your help to get it off the ground.
Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/sony-computer-entertainment-naughty-dog-inc-release-an-enhanced-version-of-the-last-of-us-on-the-ps4
lambchop
Fingers crossed!
TheShepanator
Developers usually create their game assets at incredibly high fidelity then downscale them to fit them in the game, to accomodate for the fact that during development (or maybe development of the sequel) they might find a way to squeeze higher fidelity assets in. Because of this once they’ve ported the engine it would be fairly straight forward for them to swap all assets for the higher fidelity ones, and make the game look immideately better.