The Last of Us online is dead. Naughty Dog announced today that the multiplayer spin-off of the hit series is no longer in development, citing concerns about managing ongoing content for a live service game while also trying to keep the Producing the single-player blockbusters that the PlayStation studio is famous for.
“We are aware that many of you were expecting news about the project we have called for “The Last of Us online” Naughty Dog wrote in a December 14 update. “It’s not easy to say: we have made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development of this game.”
The studio said that as production on the project progressed, it became clear that “we would need to dedicate all of our studio resources to supporting post-launch content in the coming years, which would significantly impact the development of future single-player games.” The choice was there apparently aiming to become a “purely live service game studio” along the lines of modern Bungie Destiny 2
The Last of Us onlinewhich many, many fans used to call that factions after the multiplayer mode of the original 2013 PlayStation 3 game first announced during Summer Game Fest 2022. The spin-off was considered the studio’s “biggest online experience” ever, and as big as any of its single-player games.
But Naughty Dog never showed the game beyond vague statements and concept art. Then, in May of this year, Bloomberg
The Last of Us online was one of several new multiplayer projects being developed at Sony studios as the PlayStation 5 maker invested in a massive shift towards more live service games. In November, Sony announced on an earnings call that half of the dozen or so online games it was working on were no longer available would be delayed beyond 2025.
Meanwhile, Naughty Dog is still working on a “brand new single-player game” to be released sometime in the future.
Here is Naughty Dog’s full blog post:
We realize that many of you have been expecting news about the project we call “The Last of Us Online”. There’s no easy way to say this: we’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop developing this game.
We know this news will be hard for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community who have eagerly followed our multiplayer ambitions. We’re as excited about the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to give you some background information on how we came to this decision.
The multiplayer team has been busy in pre-production on this game since we worked on The Last of Us Part II – creating an experience that we felt was unique and had enormous potential. During this time, as the multiplayer team reworked their concept for The Last of Us Online, their vision crystallized, the gameplay became more refined and satisfying, and we were excited about the direction we were taking.
As we reached full production, the enormity of our ambitions became clear. To publish and support The Last of Us Online, we would need to dedicate all of our studio resources to supporting post-launch content for years, which would significantly impact the development of future single-player games. So we had two paths in front of us: either become a pure live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s legacy.
We are incredibly proud of everyone in the studio who worked on this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will inform the development of our projects and will be invaluable to the direction we take as a studio. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single-player game we’re working on here at Naughty Dog, and we can’t wait to reveal more about what’s coming next when we’re ready.
Until then, we are incredibly grateful to our community for your support over the years.
