Naughty Dog Confirms Cancellation of The Last of Us Multiplayer Game

Naughty Dog, developer of the critically acclaimed The Last of Us games, which has now been adapted into an HBO TV series, has announced that it is canceling its The Last of Us multiplayer game due to insufficient resources being allocated to the project.

The developer claims that the game was developed in conjunction with The Last of Us Part 2, and over time “the gameplay became more refined and satisfying, and we were excited about where we were going.” However, it later became clear that Naughty Dog would have to focus all of its studio resources on supporting The Last of Us Online, which would affect the development of future single-player games that the studio was working on.

“So we had two paths in front of us: become a live-only game studio, or continue to focus on the single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s legacy,” the developer said.

For the uninitiated, Naughty Dog is the studio behind many PlayStation cult classics over the years – from the original PlayStation’s Crash Bandicoot to the PS3 and PS4 era Uncharted games. The studio is known for producing quality single-player games, and this prompted them to cancel the live service title to create better single-player experiences for the future.

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

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