Naughty Dog has stopped development on the Last of Us Online, its troubled attempt to create an onine version of the popular franchise. The studio says that it would have needed to put all of its resources into post-launch content for years to come, and that approach would have severely impacted its ability to develop future single-player games.
“We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game,” Naughty Dog said in a statement.
The studio knew that fans of The Last of Us Factions multiplayer community would be upset with the news, and wanted to provide some context as to why it chose to stop development.
An Update on The Last of Us Online: https://t.co/nMUm7TmH9h pic.twitter.com/fmuXCLzDMB
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) December 14, 2023
“The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential,” explained Naughty Dog. “As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.”
“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.”
Naughty Dog then went on to confirm that it has more than one ambitious brand new single player game that it’s working on. However, the studio didn’t reveal what they are at the moment.
The Last of Us Online's struggles
Back in May, Naughty Dog reportedly was scaling back on development of The Last of Us Online due to an internal review from Bungie. In October, Naughty Dog reportedly suffered a round of layoffs and that the multiplayer project was “put on ice.”
Now, Naughty Dog has confirmed that it will no longer be working on the game, and will continue to go down the single-player path that has shaped its legacy as a powerhouse within PlayStation’s first-party studios.
Naughty Dog’s next release is The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, which is set to release on January 19, 2024, for PlayStation 5.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
