Robert Cogburn, Lead Game Designer over at Naughty Dog, took to the Playstation Blog yesterday to give an in-depth run down of Uncharted 4‘s multiplayer plans and the “philosophy” behind them. Long story short: maps and modes, including cooperative play, will all be included with the initial purchase of the game so the “community won’t be fragmented”. Cogburn also wanted to clarify that “all vanity and gameplay in-game store items will be unlockable through gameplay”.
In addition, a loose release schedule has been laid out for when additional content will be released for Uncharted 4. This schedule is featured below, but the biggest take-away is that the game will be supported through Spring of 2017 at the least. Multiplayer support comes on top of the single player DLC being planned.
As for the philosophy behind this strategy, Cogburn listed four principles: “fairness first”, “an evolving experience”, “content for everyone”, and a “unified community”. This list isn’t really surprising, as it is just the common grocery list that every online community asks for in their game. Thankfully, Naughty Dog has caught on where other developers and publishers haven’t or won’t.
It should be noted that for players who purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition that includes the Triple Pack, the two multiplayer packs will include a weapon, booster, mystical, and vanity items. From the big ideas being presented in this blog post, it would seem that these items aren’t exclusive. However, that same Triple Pack also gives access to the planned single-player DLC for Uncharted 4.
This all sounds very uplifting, and is a breath of fresh air. The industry has unfortunately become fairly cynical in past years. Free things don’t come around too often. Hopefully, the support for Uncharted 4 will be as robust as Naughty Dog is boasting. Fortunately, this is Naughty Dog we’re talking about.
