Despite the critical and commercial triumph of The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog takes all the time to develop its multiplayer mode. In the meantime, players continue to watch for the slightest bit of information.
Rumors and speculation have been rife with The Last of Us Part II multiplayer for a long time, and Naughty Dog takes pleasure in teasing players every now and then. Last fall, communications manager Rochelle Snyder specified:
We’ll just say that we really like what the team is developing and want to give them time to build this ambitious project. We are currently recruiting for positions related to multiplayer
The Last of U $
Today, it is precisely a job offer that puts the tip in the ear. Naughty Dog is looking for an economic designer specializing in monetization. The job description does not hide the fiduciary ambitions of the studio responsible for the The Last of Us license:
Embark on the all-new Naughty Dog adventure – the studio’s first standalone multiplayer game! We seek to bring the same level of ambition and quality of our iconic scripted games to this unique multiplayer project. So we’re looking for an experienced, creative and collaborative Monetization Designer to help us create a gamer-friendly business environment from scratch.
This last sentence could be likely to question whether or not the announcement concerns the multiplayer mode of The Last of Us Part II. The mystery remains, like the character of Ellie.
The share of the gain
And if the mention of a store in-game would be likely to worry honest survivalists, uCareful reading of the job offer specifies that this “sustainable” monetary system which aims (obviously) at a form of “retention” will have to “respect the experience of the players” and ensure to correspond to “good practices” of monetization. If Naughty Dog therefore gives in to new sirens, the studio intends on paper to propose a formula that will not harm its reputation with its audience. How? ‘Or’ What ? The suspense is total. Recall that a former developer had taken gloves to justify the first microtransactions integrated into some of their previous productions, such as the multiplayer mode of Uncharted 4.
Whether or not this is a project related to The Last of Us, Naughty Dog seems more than ready to incorporate a system of microtransactions into one of its future games. It did not take more for some of our colleagues to wonder if we should not see the arrival of a possible free-to-play, a theory we’ll let you debate for free in the comments below.