2023-12-18 08:15:06
On Thursday, Naughty Dog announced that it was canceling the multiplayer game it was building in The Last of Us universe. The studio says it was in pre-production on The Last of Us Online even while working on The Last of Us Part II. “We were excited regarding the direction we were taking,” according to a blog post regarding the news.
However, “to release and support The Last of Us Online, we would have had to put all of our studio resources behind supporting post-launch content for years to come, severely impacting the development of future single-player games,” Naughty Dog says. “So we had two paths ahead of us: become a live-action-only game studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s legacy. »
Clearly, Naughty Dog is choosing the latter route – it also says it has “more than one” big new single-player title in the works.
Already, development of The Last of Us Online appeared to be in trouble, as Naughty Dog announced a delay of the game in May shortly following Bloomberg reported that Sony was reevaluating the game’s direction. (In that same delay announcement, Naughty Dog also revealed that it was working on a “new single-player experience.” In Kotaku’s October report on Naughty Dog’s firing of some contractors, the publication said that The Last of Us Online was “virtually put to rest.” outstanding. »
The cancellation of The Last of Us Online adds to Sony’s broader pushback on live service ambitions. Instead of releasing 12 live service games by March 2026, it now only plans to release six.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered from Sony and Naughty Dog will be available on January 19, 2024. The second season of the popular HBO show is expected to debut in 2025.
1702895885
#Naughty #Dog #cancels #multiplayer #game #fans #angry #disappointed
