The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Has Been Cancelled, Naughty Dog Confirms: Here’s Why – News18

Naughty Dog, the developer of the highly acclaimed The Last of Us games, which has now been adapted into an HBO TV series, has announced the cancellation of its The Last of Us multiplayer title due to an inability to allocate sufficient resources for the project.

The developer asserts that the game was under development in tandem with The Last of Us Part 2, and over time, “the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.” However, it later became clear that Naughty Dog would need to allocate all of its studio resources to support The Last of Us Online, impacting the development of the future single-player titles the studio was working on.

“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,” the developer said.

For those uninitiated, Naughty Dog is the studio behind many cult classics on PlayStation consoles over the years—from Crash Bandicoot on the original PlayStation to the Uncharted games during the PS3 and PS4 era. The studio is known for producing quality single-player titles, and this is what propelled them to cancel the live service title in favor of creating better single-player experiences for the future.

But, since the release of the PS5, Naughty Dog has only launched remakes and remasters of various titles (The Last of Part 1 and Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection). However, the studio claims that it is working on two new single-player experiences, one of which is rumored to be a new IP in the Sci-Fi space genre. Over the years, there have also been rumors that it might reboot the Uncharted series.

It remains to be seen when the developer decides to reveal what it is working on, but now that the live service title is off the radar, it might be sooner than we think.