Naughty Dog's Greedy DLC Plan & Why Fans Ask For Free Maps

This is the FULL Story as to why fans are upset with Naughty Dog's greedy DLC structuring with the Last of Us. In this blog, I outline why this is more than "just cosmetics", what the actual issue is, and why Naughty Dog has been getting a bad rep amongst the MP fans for how they've chosen to handle their consumer transactions.

Table of Contents:

1) The Initial Article (And the Issue I Have as a Multiplayer Fan)
2) The First Fault: Paid Weapons and Boosters
3) The Excuses People Make (And Why They are Wrong)
4) A Clarification
5) Why Fans are Angry (and Justified for it)
6) Why the Maps Should be Free
7) Paid Maps and the Promise of a Single, United Player Community
8) The Fifth Excuse: "It's Just Business"
9) Conclusion
10) The Purpose of this Blog

1) The Initial Article (And the Issue I Have as a Multiplayer Fan)

Everyone has heard by now about a disgruntled minority who have been criticizing Naughty Dog for releasing new cosmetic micro transaction DLC. And by the larger community, specifically here on N4G, this has been met with a quick defense of Naughty Dog. “It's just cosmetic”, “it supports the company”, “it was never promised to be in the Season Pass”. Gamespot has also run such an article.

All these responses are reasonable. But I feel that the recent outcry of Naughty Dog's DLC hasn't been given the proper spotlight. There IS a backlash, and there IS a justification for it. Naughty Dog IS being very atrocious with their DLC, and it has nothing to do with cosmetics. This blog post will shine light on what matters: Naughty Dog's greedy decision to hurt the loyal fanbase of their Last of Us Multiplayer.

There are four kinds of DLC out for the Remastered version:

1) Cosmetic. 2) Boosters. 3) Weapons. 4) Maps.

For the majority who viewed the article on sites like N4G and Gamespot, there is an incredibly misinformed focus on (1). Yes, cosmetic DLC harms no one, and is a good way to support the developers. However, in that same article run on N4G, there was mention of boosters, weapons, and maps, and the N4G community has chosen to completely ignore that, or brush it under the table.

2) The First Fault: Paid Weapons and Boosters

A few facts:

-Naughty Dog released the Last of Us on PS3 and sold 3 separate map packs. Additionally, they sold some boosters (think “perks” from Call of Duty) and weapons.

Most people were fine with this. Like usual, a multiplayer game is supported with DLC, which is usually paid for individually or through season passes. This hurts the community greatly as communities are split, but more often than not, people who support the game tend to buy the DLC.

-Then The Last of Us Remastered happens. What is promised is a unified player pool: all DLCs are together and this improves matchmaking (as you don't have to wait long in a smaller player pool), and there is less lag (since more players= more people close to you).

But the Remastered edition chose to hide the boosters and weapons of the PS3 version behind a paywall. On day one, there are paid advantages that some players have that others don't. This is a disgusting thing to do, and is incredibly cheap on Naughty Dog's part. There is an outcry when Capcom hides on-disc DLC, and Naughty Dog's case is worse: they are recharging for old content that they already introduced on PS3. Now, the justification here is that PS3 buyers have access to these items for free on PS4. However, new fans are screwed: they are stuck having to purchase this content.

3) The Excuses People Make (And Why They are Wrong)

Excuse #1:
“Those boosters and weapons are weak anyway. There is no disadvantage”. This is simply not true. Anyone who has played knows otherwise.

The silenced rifle is a pretty great power weapon. It's like the assault rifle (which is free for everyone) except that it's silent, so you wont show up on radar. This is a massive disadvantage for those who do not purchase the content. The Enforcer is also pretty powerful. So much so that it is a common and popular weapon of many DLC holders. There is even a booster that overrides another booster: "Covert Ops 3" hides users from getting marked and is available to everyone, but a new booster that you must buy called "Damage Marker" overrides this.

Excuse #2:
“Everyone has access to DLC through Preset loadouts. Use those if you don't want to pay”

There are preset loadouts which give you access to use all the new DLC, but you cannot make your own. On the plus side, ND removed the Level 3 versions of some of these new boosters and combined them into the level 2 versions, which are accessible in the preset loadouts. Basically, the preset loadouts give you access to the paywall content at its best form. 

Still, it's a dumb thing to do, because it is not cosmetic, meaning you screw the player balance from day one, regardless of how insignificant you may think it is. For example, the assault rifle is a pretty good power weapon to use, but the silenced auto rifle for the most part does the same job with the added benefit of remaining off the radar. This is a good advantage to have, but you seemingly must pay for it.

Further, the Specter (silenced power weapon) costs the same in-game points as the Assault Rifle. Even further, those who pay can customize their own loadout to earn points faster, or maximize their efficiency with the Specter loadout. Those who do not pay must rely on the one preset loadout.

Excuse #3:
“COD and Battlefield charge players for guns!”

COD has so many weapons that the DLC weapons don't become a significant advantage over the other. With the LoU DLC, there is at least one weapon that is a silenced power weapon, which there is no equivalent to in the base game. There is another power weapon that acts as a grenade launcher. There is no equivalent to a grenade launcher in the base game

The uniqueness of Last of Us means that every gun matters. When the DLC hides useful guns behind a paywall, this becomes a problem.

Excuse #4:
"It's not Pay 2 Win, so it's not a big deal"

It is not pay 2 win the same way other Pay 2 Win games are. However, surely, some rounds will be won by the fact that some have the freedom to customize their own loadout to have the playstyle they want, while others don't. There is enough in the new content that outclasses the default content, and by definition, this is a paid advantage.

It should have been free, and that's the bottom line. If they wanted to nickel and dime us, they could have charged for more class loadout slots and a variety of taunts and cosmetics. But once it affects gameplay even in the slightest, it affects everyone.

4) A Clarification

No one has a problem with cosmetics. But in combination with paid weapons, paid boosters, and paid new maps, it becomes really apparent that Naughty Dog is nickeling and diming a loyal fanbase.

People who ignore this and say "it's just cosmetics" are only looking at one side of the issue. Day one paid boosters and weapons is nonsense. It is old content being charged for again. It doesn't matter if it's not part of the season pass. This is a Remastering of a year old game, and for them to charge again for old DLC is really dirty.

I know that if Activision announced tomorrow that the next Call of Duty game hid some perks behind a paywall, on day one, there would be a universal disgust for such a practice. This is no different. The only difference is that Last of Us MP is nowhere near as popular, and therefore, won't get the same attention.

5) Why Fans are Angry (and Justified for it)

Let's suppose you can ignore day one paid boosters and weapon. The ultimate pushback from fans comes from Naughty Dog promising new DLC in the form of 2 (yes, just 2) new maps. These maps are not free. But they absolutely should be.

This is the straw that broke the camel's back. This is what the community is truly in an uproar about. If you think it's just a vocal minority complaining about cosmetics, you are misinformed.
Map packs hurt the whole community and goes against the advertised "united player pool" Naughty Dog advertised for the Remastering.

Matchmaking is already bad enough as it is. Naughty Dog continues to struggle to fix the matchmaking, that in most cases, does not match you with any players. And it's going to get worse with a community split. There is an irony in that Naughty Dog is working to fix how long matchmaking takes, only to break apart the community again by bringing out new map DLC.

All this for 2 maps.

6) Why the Maps Should be Free

This section is taken from the PS Forums, where a petition is growing to make maps free. I've copied and pasted a perfect summary of what happens when you charge for a map pack, in a Remastering that promised a unified player pool:

"Fragmentation of the TLOU community; this means there are more (unnecessary) sub-playlists which divides the community.

Longer matchmaking times: Lol this one is already bad enough, I won't even bother here.

More lag: Since the player pool is divided, that means the probability of you finding players from your region decreases and so creating a very laggy MP experience.

Less map variety: So far, it seems that there are going to be 2 maps in the next DLC drop. To create a playlist consisiting of just 2 maps is just awful. It will get very repititive really quickly and later down the lifecycle of TLOU, there won't be many players in that pool.

Party dominating: We all know how so many laggy parties ruin the experience of the paid DLC maps in TLOU PS3. New players are very unlikely to buy the new paid maps, which means lots of parties in matchmaking. Playing solo in that case is a lost case."

(Credit to PSN User: Shadow-Man_4). See comments for citation*

Fans do not want to pay for new maps, when the initial sell of the multiplayer was a unified player pool, where matchmaking was faster, with less lag, and more players to play against.

7) Paid Maps and the Promise of a Single, United Player Community

Naughty Dog got away with charging for boosters and guns (selling old content in a Remastering just feels like an awful thing to do, regardless of whether or not it was included in the Season Pass). There should be no paid advantages on day one of a purchase, but sadly there is. I understand that Naughty Dog didn't technically advertise it to be free, so, there's little room to complain. While this is still an upsetting choice, most people can't argue with the fact that Naughty Dog never advertised otherwise.

Paid maps on the other hand are something else. They hurt everybody, they hurt matchmaking, they hurt what the game was advertised to be: a complete player pool. Clearly, it's a case of pushing your luck, as people are fed up with what will happen to the community.

Even IF people are willing to pay for the maps, they are still hurt by poor matchmaking, lag, and a split community. This benefits no one, and all of this is for 2 maps. It's not worth the destruction.

This is why fans are petitioning for the maps to be free. While most ignore the boosters and weapon DLC, and while more yet are okay with cosmetic DLC, fans are adamant that, for the sake of the community, paid maps should be free.

8) The Fifth Excuse: It's Just Business

"It's just business. Naughty Dog needs support. Maps are not free to make!"

This excuse fails to acknowledge the situation here and is just used to lazily excuse the problem with map DLC for this game. It is a vague and entirely meaningless phrase. Business is done multiple ways, and there are many reasonable points made by the fans as to why this is a bad path for ND to take. There are lots of businesses that profit by treating their fans with respect. This is not what's happening here.

There are more sensible ways for a AAA studio backed by an entity like Sony to make money, and they don't involve hurting the community that supports them like this.

9) Conclusion:

Fans are upset. It is not a simple case of “it's just cosmetics”. The cosmetics are priced at a really high price, but this alone is not an issue. It is the combination of paid perks, paid weapons, and paid maps that Naughty Dog's whole approach just becomes shameless.

While I can pass on cosmetics, I can't stand by and see people misrepresent the DLC situation by ignoring the rest of The Last of Us's transactions.

10) The Purpose of this Blog:

A Remastering isn't meant to gouge even more out of the players in a way that continues to fracture the game. It is meant to be a final culmination of the game at its best and most ultimate state. Naughty Dog has not done this with the multiplayer. While most can ignore the cosmetic DLC, it seems really strange to me that anyone would defend what Naughty Dog has done with the rest of the game. While it seems to be a technical truth that Naughty Dog never promised free booster/weapon DLC, it seems to be in poor taste to charge for on-disc, old content.

Still, I am sure that there are those who will defend Naughty Dog. I had always assumed gamers stood united against harmful DLC, and I assume also that most who saw the article of Last of Us's DLC were misinformed. This blog was meant to clarify why the hardcore fans are upset, and to address those who simply think that the DLC is harmless, or that the vocal minority are complaining simply about cosmetics.

-Alpha

[Shadow-Man_4]

Awesome article, I hope more people join us in fighting for free maps!

[-Alpha]

Some people are going to ignore the points made by the fans and see your post as entitlement, so to clarify:

-No one has an issue with map dlc for a new game. Last of Us on PS3 had DLC and it was accepted by the same community who are now fighting Naughty Dog

-Last of Us Remastered is not a new game.

-Remastered fans aren't being entitled with maps. They are pointing out that there are many issues that will worsen the game's matchmaking and increase lag, by splitting the community. The solution then, is to make the maps free.

We dont want free maps just because we don't want to pay. We don't want to be separated from the other half of players, and we don't want a worse, laggy experience. Naughty Dog makes a lot of money off the game with cosmetics and by charging for on-disc content. So to charge for maps on top of all this threatens the game for all players.

[Conzul]

The problem is that unless all future maps are free, then the playerbase will get fragmented AGAIN.
Unless ND does some magic coding to keep everyone together until a DLC map is voted for, but even that's a bit klunky.

ND should just use aesthetic upgrades as paid DLC and leave all the maps as free.

[Shadow-Man_4]

It's only two maps that they're currently working on, I think they're the last two.

[iamnsuperman]

"But the Remastered edition chose to hide the boosters and weapons of the PS3 version behind a paywall. On day one, there are paid advantages that some players have that others don't. This is a disgusting thing to do, and is incredibly cheap on Naughty Dog's part. There is an outcry when Capcom hides on-disc DLC, and Naughty Dog's case is worse: they are recharging for old content that they already charged PS3 users for. Now, the justification here is that PS3 buyers have access to these items for free on PS4. However, new fans are screwed: they are stuck having to purchase this content."

Isn't this new content for the PS4 and PS3?
Source: http://blog.eu.playstation.... poor wording there since the DLC is behind a payday for both PS4 and PS3. All DLC during the season pass period (which has ended) is available on the remastered version.

The biggest questions you have to ask yourself is when are map packs usually free? They are rarely free (mostly free also they are launched a month after the initial release). This is a year down the line.

I really don't get the backlash. It is just maps and cosmetics. Sure Naughty Dog and Sony are trying to make a quick buck but who really cares? You do not have to buy it. It isn't going to impact your game (like it didn't impact other games before it).

Now I here weapons are involved which could cause disruption. It depends how they handle that. It is t pay to win if the weapons another over powered or in a league of their own. The whole seems more cosmetic than anything else ground breaking/game changing. This is more of a case of entailment versus reality

[-Alpha]

I don't mean this in an offensive way, but I answered all these points in the blog itself. You are literally repeating the same "it's just entitlement" answer that a) does not actually address the concerns/arguments of the fans, b) misses the point.

http://community.us.playsta... < This is what the community is arguing for.

It impacts your game whether you buy it (maps) or not.

I literally covered the fact that some paid weapons are unique in their own right, and how this is different from other games.

It is not "mostly" cosmetic. That's in the first paragraph of the blog, and I've detailed the gameplay advantages.

I can't keep repeating what has been said, and I'm hoping for some actual replies to counter the points of the community that are being misrepresented as "entitlement" on sites like this.

[iamnsuperman]

Because all your points you make can be questioned with history. Paid map packs are nothing new and they never fragment the user base. People continue playing issue free. I rarely buy map packs because I see it as a waste of money.

The entailment counter argument is valid (something you fail to realise) when you look at past games. Charging for DLC is not a new concept. The only time it causes problems is in f2p games as they hadn't figured out how to make people pay without going into the pay to win model.

Maybe if your blog wasn't filled with inaccuracies you might get better responses. See the link provided and the read this "Naughty Dog's case is worse: they are recharging for old content that they already charged PS3 users for. Now, the justification here is that PS3 buyers have access to these items for free on PS4." This is new content both users bases have to buy (if they want it). The cross buy feature works (if you buy it for PS3 then it works on PS4).

Also don't be an arse in your response talking about wanting actual replies. It doesn't come off well

[-Alpha]

I've clarified the quote, but your link is still about cosmetics. What I was talking about in that paragraph was weapons and boosters. This is OLD content.

Saying something is valid doesn't make it so. You are saying it is about entitlement when I have made this blog specifically outlining why it is not, and why fans want free maps. Your response was literally going back to "It's entitlement".

It has nothing to do with being cheap or wanting free content just because we want free content. Many of the players supporting free maps are those who paid for the PS3 maps. What we don't want is a continuation of the issues that new maps brought on PS3...especially after Naughty Dog said the Remastered version would offer better matchmaking a with a unified pool (and therefore, less laggy games).

Saying I have inaccuracies also doesn't make it so either :)

People in the N4G articles continuously misrepresent what the fans are fighting for, and excuse Naughty Dog with bad arguments. You literally said "So what? Everyone does it!" and "It doesn't affect you" and "weapon DLC depends on how they handle"... all of which has already been discussed in the blog.

Repeating these same lines doesn't push the conversation. It just goes in circles and comes as willfully ignorant. That's why I asked for "actual replies": respond to my argument that a unified pool was promised instead of saying "it's just history, therefore it's ok". Tell me why matchmaking isn't harmed by map DLC instead of saying "it doesn't affect you". Tell me why what I outlined about paid weapons is inaccurate instead of vaguely saying "Weapon DLC matters on how it handles".

Do you see why how none of these are actual replies to the criticisms made by me/other fans?

[Shadow-Man_4]

I want to remind you that many games, Killzone Shadow Fall being a good recent example, release map packs for FREE and other paid customization items such as OWL skins and in the case of Killzone, a paid Co-op expansion pack. These items DONOT split the community as everyone can still play in one playlist for each mode.

What paid map packs do in TLOU is not the same as they do in CoD or BATTLEFIELD. CoD and BATTLEFIELD 4 are very popular games that have 100,000s of players playing in a given time. TLOU has about 9,000 concurrent players in PEAK hours (numbers were given by Naughty Dog, btw). Can you spot the difference between CoD and TLOU MP now?

TLOU has a very small MP player base for ND to sell paid map packs. It will only lead to much longer matchmaking times, and increase in the lag.

Also worth noting is that ND has a ton of items for sale now on the PS Store. $8 hat packs, $2 taunt packs, among other stuff. These items can be used to recoup the financial resources used to create TWO maps. I'm not saying ND should release all their DLC for free, but I just want them to release free maps in order not to split the player pool much more than it already is. Plus, it's only TWO maps that they have planned which isn't really worth having 3 separate playlists for.. (3 modes, each has it's own DLC playlist. That is the way ND handles DLC playlists in case you didn't know).

I hope this gives you a clear enough idea about why we want the two maps to be free. It's NOT self-entitlement. Far from it, actually. It's for the benefit of everyone playing this awesome Multiplayer. And we don't hate ND btw, but we should point it out when they're being greedy.

[Kavorklestein]

Yeah killzone devs know they can't nickel and dime and get away with it, because Killzone isn't a "masterpiece"

Naughty Dog is cocky enough to remaster within a year, AND think they can get away with the nickel and dime for Pay to win schemes, just because they think their poop doesn't stink.

Anyone NOT complaining about it is proving that ND can poop on their chest and they will erect a shrine to the glorious-ness of Naughty Dog.

It's ridiculous, but I wouldn't have even bought the re-master in the first place, so it would be a non issue for me, but I still feel bad for all the people who got lied to.

This ^ TLOU:R shenanigans should be a bigger deal than the guy who is trying to sue over the Killzone 1080p stuff IMO.

[Kayant]

Being reading and following this on gaf and oh my is their monetization of content bad reminds me of Gears of war 3 with it's multiple playlist and weapon skins at the very least it's just cosmetic but locking weapons/perks behind a paywall in a full price title is a no no. Especially given on that is supposed to be the ultimate all-in-one pack.

It's thing like that i don't want to support, same as with the crew and being about to buy performance parts and having to pay for fast travel iirc.

[Kevlar009]

Did I read correctly there is PS3 content under a paywall for the remaster? All the ads for the remaster said it includes all the DLC from the PS3, so to charge money for it means the remaster doesn't include all the dlc, which means either the ads lied or wasn't clear enough.

If it's true they are charging for content that was supposed to be included free that is not acceptable.

[OmegaShen]

No, it means that everything that was out for PS3. Is added with the PS4 copy.

They just later seen need for new maps, so it wasn't a lie. As for maps being free? Well I don't really care, I like it more for the single player.

[BeardedPriest]

Good Article man.

Hopefully players will wake up and learn to think critically.

[TransientDreamer]

Don't like it? Don't buy it.

[gangsta_red]

Very good article, I suspect you will get either a lot of hate or a strange silence from the majority who would be the first to write a blog or comment if a certain other company's first party would have done the same thing.

The fact is, we as gamers should hold developer's (and companies) to their word and not support these greedy tactics. No matter what beloved, god like developer it's coming from.

It seems Sony is being very sly with trying to pull fast ones over their user base. It's good to see that a lot of their gamers are not going for it.

[ZombieGamerMan]

To everyone saying this is a good article your all a bunch of self entitled babies, yes I said it the whole thing is just a bunch of self entitled brats thinking they should get something free. You can say what you want about it not being about that but the simple fact the basis of this whole thing is you want the maps free so you can have the same thing as other players is self entitlement at it's purest when you want something because other people have it.

You justify it by saying you don't want the player pool split up but like anyone and everyone said this isn't new, it happened on the PS3 version it happens with every other multiplayer game. You can state those can get away with it because of their large player base but it's still no justification to any of it.

Also with the whole putting perks and weapons behind a pay wall thing, the perks that you can get don't do much to make the experience broken. All they do is give you an edge something the default perks already do those perks don't render the other perks useless. The only thing out it that you can argue is the spectre gun but guess what it's a gun you have to buy with parts anyway so it's already in a situation where what do you prefer having that gun or having the perks you want so the choice there already makes this a non issue especially when you'll have players go in without purchasable weapons against players who do have them in their loud out.

Finally let's just cut the sh1t here this is business as much as we love and enjoy gaming and consider it an art form it's also a business that these companies want to make money in. Sure we can say the cosmetic stuff like masks, gestures, hats and stuff should be enough for them but here's the little known reality of it. A company will try to get you to buy more than what you wanted that is a fact, now is this greedy of them no it's business.

Greedy would be charging $5 for 1 skin in a fighting game or sell you a $150 collector's edition with stupid stuff that no one wants and doesn't even come close to justify the price. Selling you more maps however is anything but greedy.

Now I know what I said is going to fall on deaf ears because all you want is free maps because the truth is you are a bunch of cheap people who think because you dropped $50 on a game you should have whatever else they do next free well that's not how it works.

I'm going to tell you something else something that I hope you really take to heart, this DLC will be sold you won't stop that no matter how much you complain because here's why people will buy it. The people who are like "Oh you don't have $10 to buy some maps or something" will buy it, people who enjoy the multiplayer will buy it, even the people wanting it free will buy it because the people they play it with will buy it and you are forced to buy it because the alternative is to divide your friend pool.

I am not trying to say the fight is pointless as it's a losing battle I am just saying your plight is stupid and you are in fact a self entitled person.

[memots]

more hate towards this. How surprising. What applies to other cannot apply to this game.

Even with all your well tough ( and well documented argument ) I cannot help but feel that no other game are subject to this kind of nitpicking.

[Kavorklestein]

Exactly. Proof that some people think Naughty Dog can do no wrong, when lying about the plans for a PS4 version of the game was bad enough, they take it a step further, and do things that would make COD fans shit their diapers. and BF and Titanfall fans would boycott the devs in a big way if it happened. I'm not even saying the maps should be free, but buying OP or cheap guns is just pathetic. It's satan on earth if anyone else does something like this... for whatever reason, But noooooo, ND can do it, and it's time to take bullets for those guys!

Hypocrites abound.

[ZombieGamerMan]

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about and are just trying to call out gamers, if you knew anything you'd know the extra guns in TLoU are not the be all end all and anyone who doesn't own them is screwed. I don't own any of them on the PS3 version and I still kick people's asses in that game, every gun has their ups and downs to them even the ones you buy.

[IVanSpinal]

i see a fight of ps fans vs ps fanboys