10 Times Video Games Didn't Care What You Think

9. The Last of Us: Part Two Dropped Joel As A Playable Character

last of us 2 joel ellie
Naughty Dog

The Last of Us is probably one of the biggest and most popular games of all time, particularly in the linear narrative adventure space.

So what do you do when you make a game that popular? Take out the chance to play the sequel as the character that players fell in love with in the first game? Apparently.

It was extraordinarily bold of Naughty Dog to follow up their critically-acclaimed emotionally-charged journey through the apocalypse by taking out one of the main characters almost immediately but that’s what they went for. This isn’t to say the sequel is a bad game by any means, or even that the decision to leave Joel behind in the sequel was necessarily a bad one. But it did absolutely show that the developers were not making choices based on what players wanted and they absolutely didn’t care what you thought. Some players celebrated them for that while others felt wildly betrayed. This spawned the growing hatred for Abbie among some fans, as she was a playable character in the second game and a large component in replacing Joel.

This is a perfect example of developers deciding they know what’s best for their game. Whether you’re on board or not is totally up to you but I think we can all agree this move was the opposite of fan service.

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Contributor

Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.