‘The Last of Us’ Multiplayer Game Has Been Canceled

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Naughty Dog, the game studio behind megahit “The Last of Us,” has released deeply disappointing news to many fans: It has decided to pull the plug on its multiplayer project dubbed The Last of Us Online to focus fully on single-player games. “There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game,” Naughty Dog announced in a blog post Thursday.

The company continued, “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.” According to the company, the multiplayer team had been in preproduction on The Last of Us Online since Naughty Dog was working on “The Last of Us Part II.” But in preparing to ramp up to full production of the multiplayer game, “the massive scope of our ambition became clear,” Naughty Dog said in the blog post. “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.” “The Last of Us” was adapted into an HBO series by game co-creator Neil Druckmann and showrunner Craig Mazin — which became an instant hit when it premiered in January 2023.