The Last of Us Part 1 Pricing Controversy Explained

gamerant.com:

The Last of Us Part 1 was the latest in a long history of Naughty Dog and PlayStation leaks, having been unofficially announced a while before it was legitimately revealed at Summer Game Fest last month. This certainly dampened the official announcement’s luster, but not the excitement of what had been shown for the game, which Naughty Dog has billed as a remake. In it, Naughty Dog alleges that the original The Last of Us experience is rebuilt from the ground up, with modernized gameplay, enhanced graphical fidelity, and other improvements on PS5.

The Last of Us Part 1’s cinematic announcement trailer offered these promises alongside the words of Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, who explained that the remake’s fidelity has improved thanks to rebuilt facial animations that are more in tune with Naughty Dog’s original vision. For many fans, the excitement of returning to The Last of Us is enough of a sell. However, some fans have considered The Last of Us’ price to be unreasonable based upon their idea of what a remake should constitute, and whether The Last of Us Part 1 does enough to earn its classification as a remake.

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The idea of The Last of Us Part 1 being labeled a “cash grab” originated from fans who expressed how skeptical they are about how much the game is actually being improved, and whether those changes are enough merit to make it worthy of its price tag. Before any gameplay had leaked—and a lot unfortunately had leaked following the initial discourse—fans decided that The Last of Us Part 1’s visuals were hardly reason enough to rationalize the game’s cost.

This is obviously entirely subjective from fan-to-fan, and a lot of individuals will