Posted in: Games, Naughty Dog, Video Games | Tagged: the last of us, The Last Of Us Online

Naughty Dog Has Canceled The Last Of Us Online

Those hoping to eventually play The Last Of Us Online won't have the chance, as Naughty Dog have officially killed the project.

Published Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:20:08 -0600

by Gavin Sheehan

Last updated Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:20:46 -0600

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Article Summary

Naughty Dog cancels The Last of Us Online to maintain focus on single-player games.
The studio shared a heartfelt message explaining the difficulties leading to the cancellation.
Resources from the halted online project are likely to be redirected to other titles.
Naughty Dog teases future ambitious single-player games in the pipeline.

The team at Naughty Dog announced this evening that they have put an end to one of their projects, as The Last Of Us Online has been canceled. The team posted a notice on their website, which we have copied for you to read here, letting fans know of the decision. The TL;DR is that the amount of resources needed to run the game would have meant a dynamic change in the studio, and they chose to focus on single-player narrative games rather than become a studio just working on a live multiplayer title. Hopefully, this means we should be expecting some kind of news on The Last Of Us Part III in the near future since we're guessing all resources for the online title will probably now be shifted toward making that game.

Naughty Dog Has Canceled The Last Of Us Online — Credit: Naughty Dog

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. 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. We're equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision.

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. 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.

We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. 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. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we're working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we're ready. Until then, we're incredibly thankful to our community for your support throughout the years.

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