Image: Push Square
Last week, Sony added a new way to play The Last of Us 2, a game which first released over five years ago, in 2020.
The response, on our website, was mixed.
While many posters celebrated the arrival of the Chronological mode, others criticised Naughty Dog for continuing to iterate on its half-decade old game.
Of course, the context here is that the Californian developer is yet to release a new title for PS5, and some fans are at the end of their tether. They feel the studio has been milking its various re-releases of The Last of Us instead of putting its time and energy into Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
The reality is that game development is a delicate balancing act, where resources need to be meticulously managed. We doubt any of the ongoing investment into The Last of Us, perhaps with the exception of the franchise’s ill-fated online multiplayer spin-off, has had a particularly large impact on other projects.
And honestly, as was discussed on the recent Sacred Symbols podcast, we think Sony deserves credit for continuing to iterate and improve on its first-party games.
This isn’t an isolated incident: Astro Bot was also refreshed last week with the addition of multiple new stages, taking the total number up to over 90. All of the post-release content has been added free of charge, adding new reasons to return to the release on a semi-regular basis.
If you missed out on the award-winning Team ASOBI platformer at launch, you’ll be buying into a much bigger overall adventure today. And that’s not to take away from the day one offering either: this was a complete experience upon release – all of the extras added since are simply the icing on the cake.
We’ve seen similarly superb support for a variety of other PlayStation games, too, like God of War Ragnarok which added the outstanding Valhalla for free. The platform holder actually undersold this essential roguelike game mode, which not only bridged the story between mythologies, but also served up some of the best combat encounters in the game.
And we’ve seen similar additions and improvements to the likes of Stellar Blade, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and many more – all of which have added great content updates, with new outfits to unlock and gameplay free of charge. Who could forget Ghost of Tsushima adding an entire online multiplayer mode – and a good one at that?
Sony gets a lot of criticism, and rightly so. But its post-release support has been exceptional all generation long, and that’s to be applauded.
There are business reasons for its generosity, of course: keeping games in the zeitgeist improves their sales tail, and adds fresh enthusiasm around post-release initiatives, like PC ports.
But the end result for consumers is more of a great game, and that deserves credit.
Yes, the publisher’s release cadence has been a little slower than we would have liked, but at least you know when Sony drops a first-party game, it’s going to be well supported through to its sequel. And often a lot of that post-release content is being added for free.
Image: Push Square
How do you feel about PS5’s post-release support? Do you enjoy seeing your favourite games constantly adding new content and features? Or would you rather developers move on to their next projects sooner? Let us know below.
How would you rate Sony’s post-release support in general? (306 votes)
- Very good58%
- Good33%
- Meh8%
- Poor 0%
- Very poor1%
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.