Naughty Dog Cancels The Last Of Us Online So As Not To Affect Future Single-Player Projects

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After over three years in development, Naughty Dog has made the unfortunate decision to cancel The Last of Us Online. The studio made the announcement yesterday, saying that the project proved to be too ambitious and that the need to continually update and support the live service game could negatively affect future single-player projects, which have been its bread and butter since its founding.

“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear,” said Naughty Dog. “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.”

“[…] 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 studio added. Obviously, they went with the latter.

The Last of Us Online was initially set to launch on the PlayStation 4 back in 2020 alongside The Last of Us Part 2. It was originally supposed to follow the same formula as the first game’s popular Factions mode. Two years later and the game was still a no-show. Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann later revealed that the project had “evolved beyond the team's ambition”, hence the delay.

Back in May, Naughty Dog announced that it was delaying The Last of Us Online again indefinitely. This was reportedly after Sony and Bungie failed to find proof of its viability. It wasn’t entirely a waste of time and resources, however, as Naughty Dog says that they’ll be using the technology and the lessons they learned from the cancelled project in the development of two upcoming single-player titles.

“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,” the studio teased.

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