Naughty Dog has confirmed the cancellation of its multiplayer spin-off for The Last Of Us.
The video game developer took to its blog last week to announce the news, writing: “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.”
After acknowledging that the decision was a tough one to make and that it will understandably upset loyal fans as well as the developers working on it, Naughty Dog shared more insights into how it came to the decision.
The developer notes that the game had been in pre-production since it was working on The Last Of Us Part II but that the “massive scope of our ambition became clear” as it went into full production.
“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.”
Moving forward, Naughty Dog says that “the learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio.”
The studio also confirmed that they have “more than one ambitions, brand new single player game” in the works, though it can’t divulge more information at this time.
The Last Of Us multiplayer game was announced in 2022 with a piece of concept art teasing what’s to come. The developer went on to release another in February, which provided some additional clues for the “ambitious” title. However, in late May this year, it was announced that The Last Of Us Online was being delayed to give its developers more time to work on the product.