Player 2 sits down and thinks about which recently released games will earn classic status in the years to come.
The story in part 3 of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us series may explore a "congregation of immune people."
Former Naughty Dog artist Gabriel Betancourt explains why the "sweet spot" for game teams is under 200 people and how AAA "factories" kill creativity.
There’s definitely some truth to this. When teams get too large, coordination starts to outweigh creativity—layers of approval, risk aversion, and tight deadlines can turn bold ideas into “safe” ones. Keeping a team under ~200 people sounds ideal for maintaining clear communication and a shared vision. That said, massive AAA projects also come with huge technical demands and expectations, so scaling up isn’t always avoidable. The real challenge is figuring out how to keep that small-team creativity alive inside big studio structures.
More than that, it's logistically untenable. Inevitably, when teams get too large, how do you keep tabs on accountability? I suspect this massive team size is a consequence of the perfectionism streak Naughty Dog has.
I wish we could have so many people working on something and it turns out great because I'm all for collaboration in spirit - the problem is too many people as part of the larger team and smaller units. Suppose for example that you have too many people in the art department; you will very often come up against fiercely competing visions for how things should look. That competitive vision will cause friction between team members, team doesn't work as a unit, the back and forth can further delay parts that the other departments are waiting for, etc etc.
A 200-person team says, to me, that we need to scale back game development. Even if it means we go back to PS2 era costs and scale, why not? Those games are still great fun, the budgets were in check, and you could literally break the 200-man team into like 10 20-man teams working on different projects.
Alexander Morton, the Scottish actor probably best known for starring in British comedy drama Monarch of the Glen - but known to me for being the hilariously foul-mouthed dwarf Zoltan Chivay in The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3 - has died aged 81.
Haven't played DS3 so I cant comment on that but TLOU and TW3 will certainly be viewed as classics say, 15 years from now. GTAV i'm unsure about, it was a great game but idk if it'll be one of the games ppl think about immediately when asked to think of a classic game from the PS3/360 era.
GTAV is certainly popular, thanks in part to the multiplayer. But I personally had more fun with GTA: Vice City & San Andreas more, back in the day.
I would probably through Uncharted 2 on that list. Just because no game before it replicated a really good adventure movie like it did.
Another one that may sneak in to Classic territory is Overwatch. It has had a massive impact since it was released.
TLOU was an instant classic when it released, GTAV as well...