Naughty Dog responded to the overwhelming number of players during PC port of The Last of Us Part 1 that are experiencing crashing and freezing issues. The developer is “actively investigating” several issues reported by users, though it looks like these issues are just a few of the many things that Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy will be working on for future updates and fixes.
Sony blamed for choosing Iron Galaxy over Nixxes for this PC port
The Last of Us Part I PC players: We have heard your concerns and our team is actively investigating the various issues you have reported.
We will continue to update it, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in future patches.– Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) March 28, 2023
As of this writing, the average user review rating for The Last of Us Part 1 on Steam sits at a dismal “mostly negative” rating, with just 33% of over 3,000 reviews recommending it.
Going through some of the “most helpful” user reviews, they report multiple crashes about once every 20 minutes (sometimes even more frequent than that), a large amount of VRAM usage, long load times, and a general lack of optimization. Many have been stuck with game-making shaders for hours. A user on Twitter caused the game to brick your Steam Deck and “Full Spec Gaming PC” even after downloading and reinstalling the game.
In reviews, much of the blame went to Iron Galaxy Studios and Sony for choosing that studio over Nixxes Software for this PC port.
Naughty Dog, as noted in the tweet above, is aware of the issues, although it looks like they are prioritizing updates and will address crashing issues in upcoming patches. The developer asks players to check their support pages and submit tickets for any issues on the official Naughty Dog website here.
This PC port for The Last of Us Part 1 was delayed in February, possibly foreshadowing these crashing issues with the game.