The multiplayer Last of Us game Naughty Dog had in the works is no more, with the studio having revealed that it’s been cancelled due the impact that supporting it as a live service would have had on ND’s single player plans going forwards.
To be fair, it is nice to see a company within the games industry decide against getting sucked into the live service market and instead opt to stick with what it knows best – which in this case is remastering titles that feel like they came out literally five minutes ago. Although, to be fair, it might have been nice to rampage about and kill some infected with your mates after enjoying The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.
In a blog post announcing the decision, Naughty Dog revealed that the game – dubbed The Last of Us Online – had been in pre-production since the studo was working on The Last of Us Part 2, saying: “we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we we headed with it.”
Confirming that the decision has now been made to “stop development” on the game, it added: “We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently.”
In terms of the reasoning behind this choice, Naughty Dog explained: “To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behins 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,” it continued, “become a solely live service games studio or cuntinue to focus on [the kind of] single player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”
In closing, Naughty Dog said that it has “more than one ambitious, brand new single player game” currently in the works, adding: “we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.”
If you’re a Last of Us fan now looking for something to distract yourself from speculating about what that tease could end up reffering to, make sure to check out the details that’ve emerged about The Last of Us 2 Remastered’s new additions ahead of its arrival on January 19.