‘The Last of Us Part 1’ on PC never made sense

wegotthiscovered.com:

Let’s not start off our discussion hurling around accusations — Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is an IP juggernaut, the rare game that dominated the cultural zeitgeist for a decade straight while spawning a sequel and critically-acclaimed TV adaptation. It’s only fair that PC players finally get the chance to experience the game without having to shell out even more money, especially if they’ve already spent a chunk of change on a high-end graphics card. There’s gold in them there Steam Hills, with Spider-Man Remastered, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and God of War (2018) selling gangbusters for Sony and their respective studios. Sony and Naughty Dog’s most acclaimed game was always going to make the jump, it’s how it happened that’s worrisome. 

Initially announced at The Game Awards last year, the port is based on the PlayStation 5’s The Last of Us Part 1, a sort of Frankensteined “modernization” of the 2013 original, which we enjoyed. The positivity didn’t stop the remake itself from feeling unnecessary; according to a report from Bloomberg back in 2021, the project was originally conceived by Sony Bend (of Days Gone infamy) as a demo to secure funding and greater trust within Sony proper. Instead, Sony cannibalized the small team and transferred development to Naughty Dog, where some of the same hands that originally crafted The Last of Us rebuilt, remodeled, and retextured the experience from scratch. Naughty Dog wanted everyone to have a chance to experience the world of The Last of Us in the highest fidelity possible; the added moniker of Part I was an attempt to streamline and better connect the game to its sequel. All of this — and the debate surrounding the ontological question of “is this game even necessary?” — are old