We know that work is underway on The Last of Us: the long-awaited multiplayer spin-off from Part II: Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann more or less admitted this on Twitter last week, begging the fans’ patience. Still, although it is unclear how close the Factions follow-up is to launch, we know that the developer continues to strengthen its ranks with a series of multiplayer signings.
One of those functions that is now advertising, as detected by GameSpot, is the position of an Economy Designer. The synopsis should give a good idea of what types of tasks the candidate will be responsible for: “We are looking for a passionate multiplayer economy designer who can help us create paths of self-expression for our players, ensure robust longevity for our games and give our players big rewards to fight for. “
The job description continues that recruitments will be needed to “design and adjust the game’s economy and progression” and “collaborate extensively with [the live operations team] optimize the economy and meet the needs of the players ”. It’s all a little simple, but we can make some inferences about what the future of The Last of Us multiplayer will look like based on that.
Indeed, it seems that Naughty Dog is looking to build a very “sticky” experience type, with regular updates, as we see in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War or Fortnite. Obviously, the franchise has its own distinctive style of play, but we would not be shocked to see the developer double in post-launch support here.
Naturally, the word “economy” will take readers directly to microtransactions and, although we anticipate that this title will have all the pitfalls of a modern multiplayer game – a Battle Pass, for example, seems right – it is important to note that it seems very much to be referring to game savings here; this position is being announced because Naughty Dog wants to “give our players great rewards to fight for”.
I hope we can see what he’s cooking in the not too distant future.