Highlights

  • PlayStation's first-party exclusives have become a vital part of the company's strategy in the last two decades, with The Last of Us leading the charge.
  • In 2023, The Last of Us franchise made significant moves with the release of an acclaimed HBO show, a PC port, and a PS5 remaster of Part 2.
  • The success of The Last of Us has influenced other PlayStation franchises, with God of War and Horizon getting TV adaptations, and the potential for more roguelike modes in future games.

While first-party exclusives have always been important to PlayStation, with even the PS1 and the PS2 having some major exclusives, they've only become a vital part of the company's core strategy in the last two decades or so, rearing its head properly with the introduction of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era. PlayStation has spent the last 20 years establishing new IP and building up some now-huge AAA game franchises, to the point where its current first-party line-up is so impressive that it blows Xbox out of the water, and comes surprisingly close to Nintendo. Of them all, The Last of Us is the franchise that's usually leading the charge.

First released in 2013, The Last of Us really marked the start of PlayStation's new golden era for first-party exclusives, paving the way for games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man, and 2018's God of War. Now, a decade later, The Last of Us is still leading the charge, but in more ways than ever before.

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2023 Has Been a Good Year for The Last of Us

While The Last of Us may not have had a new mainline release this year, 2023 has still been a noteworthy one for the franchise, and it's gone quite some ways in proving just how much The Last of Us leads the charge for the rest of PlayStation's first-party line-up. By far the biggest piece of Last of Us media to release this year was the HBO show. Striking the perfect balance between faithful adaptation and something exciting and new, HBO's The Last of Us deserves all the critical acclaim it received earlier this year. It's no wonder that season 2 has already been confirmed and is now well into development.

The Last of Us Part 1 also saw a release on PC at the beginning of the year. While it launched in a poor state, it's gradually become the game it always should have been, and is now a decent PC port of one of the best games of all time. Finally, about a month ago, Naughty Dog announced that The Last of Us Part 2 was getting a PS5 remaster, with a handful of new modes being included in the package, all for just $10 for those who already own the game.

The Last of Us Has Laid the Groundwork for Other PlayStation First-Party Franchises

Now, it's God of War and Horizon's turn to get TV shows. Coming from Amazon and Netflix respectively, not much is currently known about the God of War and Horizon live-action shows. However, it's safe to assume that after its immense success, both of those shows will be looking closely at HBO's The Last of Us, using it as a basis for how to get a video game adaptation right.

Though God of War beat it to the punch by a month, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's No Return roguelike mode was the first one to be announced, so arguably it's led the charge there as well. It wouldn't be too much of a surprise if additional roguelike modes started appearing in most first-party PlayStation games moving forward, following on from The Last of Us and God of War.

The Last of Us was also ahead of the curve for PlayStation's big push into first-party live-service territory, although that hasn't worked out quite as well as anyone would've hoped. Though it's just been canceled, the very existence of a Last of Us multiplayer spinoff seemingly spurred on the creation of a Horizon multiplayer game, which is presumably still in development at Guerrilla. While not everything has worked out for The Last of Us recently, it's usually the first of PlayStation's first-party line-up to do something, and that's probably only going to continue in the near future.