Rumor: The Last Of Us Multiplayer Cancelled By Naughty Dog Themselves

12.10.2023 - 11:13 / gameranx.com / Jim Ryan / Last Of Us

We have a new rumor about the state of The Last Of Us multiplayer from a new source. The game is reportedly cancelled, but the devil is in the details.

This rumor comes from TheTipster. TheTipster shared a screenshot of something they had apparently posted in a forum, but reshared on Twitter for more visibility.

For your convenience, we have transcribed TheTipster’s message below:

“Jim Ryan kinda gave a bunch of studios requests to make these types of games, ND had long considered the idea of doing Factions 2 but that idea evolved into something more, ultimately it seems like there were struggling with making the game they wanted to make in a GaaS form.

Bungie were involved but not in the way people have said, Bungie are PS Studio now so they’ll be involved in a large percentage of other PS Studios games (over 2000 people worked on TLOU Pt 2 for examnple),

it seems that ND just weren’t happy with the game and they’re considering just moving the parts they were happy with into TLOU III rather than putting out a seperate title that lessens the brands image in their own eyes.”

So the narrative that Bungie caused a Naughty Dog project to be cancelled with their feedback wasn’t true at all. Perhaps we should have been more skeptical about that claim – while fans wouldn’t have any idea at all how game companies do business behind closed doors, we could have seen that this rumor was intended to rile up PlayStation fans.

It also certainly makes more sense that Naughty Dog decided to shelve the project themselves, and Bungie’s consultation and advise on it may have pushed them in that direction, instead of Bungie telling Sony and Naughty Dog what to do.

Now, TheTipster received some criticism for allegedly making up the claim that 2000 people worked on The Last Of Us Part II. They pointed out they got this information from another open source – which, it turns out, was just Wikipedia.

Now, if that name seemed familiar, this is why. TheTipster was also the leaker who famously claimed that Schreier’s report on the behind the scenes of The Last of Us multiplayer was wrong, and the studio was actually already working on The Last of Us Part III. We won’t be taking sides on this one – both Jason and TheTipster have come up wrong before.

At least, TheTipster has gotten enough rumors right that this rumor is being given the light of day as well.