The Last Of Us Part 2 was delayed a couple of times before it finally launched. The last of those delays came in the weeks leading up to the original release date, and they were devastating. Some people, myself included, could not get their heads around why the game had to be delayed so many times. I understand now that I’ve played the game, but for everyone else, I think that there’s one stat which will make it all very clear. The Last of Us Part 2 involved 14 studios, and over 2,000 people.
Obviously the game was primarily developed by Naughty Dog. That’s no surprise. But the project actually involved a total of 2,332 people all in all. That’s quite a lot of people, and more that you might think. It’s about the attendance you’d expect at a small music venue, and way less than you’d get at a football game in the UK. It’s hard to describe, other than to say that it’s about the entire student population of Enstone Primary School, which is where I first went to school a very long time ago.
Two separate studios outside of Naughty Dog were contracted for voice work, and sound design in general. These are the guys who made the sounds of the game as realistic as they are, and they did a phenomenal job.
On top of this, 12 other studios were contracted for various other parts of the game. Some of these had only a couple of staff members, whilst others had more than 50. Given how good the game is, and the scope of it, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see just how many people were involved.
For me this raises the question of how sensible it actually was to involve so many different companies. This project must have suffered from delays from various studios, and I think that it suffered as a result of all the delays that it had. Still, it probably wouldn’t have been possible to make the game for PlayStation 4 without the process that was put in place by Sony and Naughty Dog. I just hope that with the next game things are a lot clearer.