Is It A Mistake For Sony To Delay Development of The Last of Us Part 3?

[Herbert]

So I'm sure that most of us have heard the news that Sony has delayed development of The Last of Us Part 3 even though they already have a plot outline.

I must admit this is particularly perplexing to me for a few reasons.

#1 It takes forever to make these games. To their credit Naughty Dog doesn't rush their game development they make games with a high amount of polish. Very high quality games. But knowing how long it takes to actually make the game is all the more reason to get this thing started as soon as possible.

From the comments it seems like the writers are trying to make sure that they are absolutely sold on the story direction before taking it to the next level. In all honesty after seeing what they did with part 2 and the way it ended its hard for me to believe they don't know what they want to do with the story but okay I get it, take your time do it right etc, etc.

But if this is the case why start the series with HBO. Its very possible that they end up in a game of thrones like situation where the series surpasses the original source material and then HBO will have to start making up content on the fly to keep it going and make a satisfactory ending.

The fact that Sony is already making a remake of The Last of Us Part 1 just screams money grab in my mind since it seems like they are looking to cash in on that when the HBO series launches hopefully to huge fan fare(I'm sure it will).

Its very disappointing to fans because the story is still unfinished. No matter if you loved or hated part 2 the story is still unfinished. There are some loose ends that need to be tied up and resolved.

So from a fan perspective, yes it is a mistake to delay development of part 3. The primary danger is that fans will have to wait more than 7 years for a sequel and the secondary danger is that HBO will finish the story before the original source material which looks extremely likely right now.

From a company perspective, in the short term, you can make the argument that its in their best interest to focus development on a Last of Us Part 1 Remake. If they have a timed release with the HBO series they are going to cash in. No doubt in my mind, that if the remake comes out at the same time that the HBO series launches its going to do huge numbers.

I can just see Sony executives sitting back analyzing how game of thrones blew up, and how sales of George RR Martin's books skyrocketed. The series turned George into a celebrity. As a matter of fact he just signed a reportedly fat contract with HBO for more content based on other stories in the Westeros(game of thrones) universe. 

If Sony was smart they would also get God of War on the HBO Max as soon as possible. Now I've heard rumors of a God of War series on Netflix. That could definitely work and would likely do the trick in terms of raising God of War's profile even more. But if I were a Sony executive I'd want my content on HBO Max they have a strong proven track record of developing heavy hitting content. But with the subscriber numbers that Netflix carries they would serve.

So at the end of the day I see both perspectives. If you want to chase fan love and remain tru to the fans I say dvelop The Last of Us 3 if you want to go for the money I say dvelop the remake. Either way will work for Sony since they have such a loyal fan base.