An insider has broken down some details on why Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us Online.
The Last Of Us Multiplayer Officially Canceled, Naughty Dog Announces
15.12.2023 - 02:55 / mmorpg.com / Last Of Us / Sony
Naughty Dog officially canceled its planned multiplayer spin-off of The Last of Us today, ending months of speculation about the planned game's status. The reason given? It would come at the expense of the single-player games the studio creates.
Reports earlier this year made it clear that themultiplayer mode was on ice after layoffs hit Sony's pre-eminent studio during the summer, but no official word was forthcoming about whether or not fans of the series could expect to see development thaw. Now, in apost on the Naughty Dog website, the studio officially announced the multiplayer project is dead, despite it being in production since the team was working on The Last of Us Part II.
«We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online,» the post starts out. It continues, «There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game.»
The post goes on to explain that while the team had built a quality mode that had «tremendous potential,» the ultimate decision to pull the plug was down to the level of maintenance and development live service games require post-launch.
As a result, it would run counter to what has made Naughty Dog a household name for many gamers: its single-player heritage.
«In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.»
As a result, the team has canceled the mode, instead shifting its resources to continuing to work on the multiple «ambitious, brand new single player» games the studio itself is working on, though Naughty Dog doesn't share any more than that.
First announced last year during Sumer Game Fest 2022, Naughty Dog stated the game would have been as big as any of its single-player entries. While no concrete gameplay details were given, we were treated to some concept art and a tease that more information would be coming the following year (now 2023). It seems that this will not be the case anymore, unless maybeSony wants to tab NCSOFT to pick up the slack and build this alongside whatever Horizon-universe-inspired multiplayer game it's making with Guerilla Games?
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