The PlayStation developer will focus on narrative single-player games.
Naughty dog announced on Thursday that they have canceled their The Last of Us multiplayer game.
The studio claims to have been working on The Last of Us Part II while in pre-production for The Last of Us Online. stated in a blog about the news that “we were excited about the direction we were heading.”
Naughty dog says that “to support The Last of Us Online, we would have to devote all of our studio resources to supporting post-launch content for years, which would severely impact the development of future single player games.” We had to choose between two options: either become a live service games studio, or focus on the single-player narratives that define Naughty Dog’s history.
Naughty dog is clearly choosing the latter option. It also claims to have “more than one” new big single-player game in the works.
The Last of Us Online was already in trouble when Naughty Dog announced that the game would be delayed . This announcement came shortly after Bloomberg revealed that Sony had re-evaluated the game’s directions. Naughty dog also announced that it was working on “a brand-new single-player experience” in the same announcement. In Kotaku’sOctober report on Naughty’s laying off contractors, the magazine said that ‘The Last of Us Online is “basically on hold.”
The cancellation of The Last of Us Online is part of Sony’s wider pushback of their live service ambitions. Instead of releasing twelve live service games by the end of March 2026 now only plans to release six.
Sony and Naughty Dog will release of The Last of Us Part II remastered on January 19, 2024. The hit HBO series will debut in the year 2025 .