The main thing for the weekend (May 27-28)

The media reported that Sony suspended work on the multiplayer The Last of Us, Rayark studio was accused of mass dismissal of artists and replacing them with neural networks, sales of The Outlast Trials exceeded 500 thousand copies — we tell you what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Sony is not sure about the long-term success of the multiplayer The Last of Us, according to journalist Jason Schreier. According to him, the company decided to revise the concept of the game, but did not cancel the project itself. While she is thinking about what to do with the game, the team responsible for The Last of Us has been greatly reduced, and many specialists have been transferred to other projects. Note that shortly before the release of Schreier’s article, Naughty Dog studio wrote on Twitter that the release of the game would be delayed.

There were rumors online that the Taiwanese studio Rayark, which developed the rhythm games Deemo, Cytus and VOEZ, fired all the artists and replaced them with neural networks. As proof, gamers have published screenshots of the company’s latest games with gross errors. On them you can see, for example, six fingers on the hands of some characters. On May 27, Rayark published an official statement in which it denied rumors of layoffs. She admitted that she is exploring the possibilities of AI, but she is not doing it to the detriment of employees: the studio has not fired a single artist since it started using neural networks.

▪️The Roots of Pacha prehistoric farm simulator is back on Steam after two weeks of absence. Soda Den studio and Crytivo publisher reported that they settled the conflict over the rights to the game and stopped cooperation on mutually beneficial terms. Now Soda Den itself is listed as the publisher of Roots of Pacha on Steam.

The studio Red Barrels announced that the cooperative horror The Outlast Trials was bought 500 thousand times in its debut week. The title was released in early access format on May 18 on Steam and Epic Games Store.