The Last of Us multiplayer game has been officially canceled. The Last of Us is one of the most beloved video game franchises out there and is arguably PlayStation’s magnum opus. While there are other massive franchises like God of War and Spider-Man, the success of the two games and the new HBO series means The Last of Us has transcended success in gaming and is now a beloved IP in the general world of entertainment. While most love The Last of Us for its story and rich characters, Naughty Dog also has some really strong gameplay, particularly in the second game. The first game featured a multiplayer mode known as Factions that combined the scrappy gameplay with a PvP setting, making for a brutal online experience unlike anything else out there. The Last of Us Part II was meant to have a successor to this mode, but a decision was made to spin it off into its own game.
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After years of waiting, all we ever got was some concept art and very, very loose details. Earlier this year, it was reported that The Last of Us multiplayer game was being put on ice following some development issues, but it wasn’t outright canceled. Unfortunately, things have changed and Naughty Dog has officially confirmed that The Last of Us multiplayer game has been canceled. Naughty Dog released a blog post explaining the tough decision to cancel the game. Ultimately, Naughty Dog released that the scope and scale of The Last of Us multiplayer game would require the studio to become all-hands on deck to support the game and a significant amount of resources would be spent supporting it years after launch. This would then mean less effort could be put into developing the single player games the studio is known for. So, Naughty Dog opted to continue making the games fans love and cancel The Last of Us multiplayer game.
“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear,” said Naughty Dog. “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.”
Naughty Dog also noted that it will take its learnings and the technology for what they called “The Last of Us Online” and apply it to their future games. There is no mention of trying to salvage this into a future multiplayer project, seemingly only single player games. It’s unclear if The Last of Us Part III will feature a smaller multiplayer mode akin to the one in the first game or not. Given the amount of love for that mode, it would be a bit shocking if it never sees the light of day ever again, but maybe it’s just not in the cards for Naughty Dog.
