Sony Group Corp.'s SONY Naughty Dog recently announced the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, a multiplayer spin-off of its renowned series.
The studio disclosed this decision on Dec. 14, expressing difficulties in balancing ongoing content creation for a live-service game with the development of future narrative-driven titles.
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"There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game," the developer said in a blog post.
The multiplayer spin-off, previously referred to as Factions, was announced in 2022 but never went beyond concept art. Reports indicated production setbacks, scaling back of the team and eventual suspension of the project.
"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," the statement revealed.
"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 added.
The studio continued to express gratitude for the community's support and highlighted the valuable technological advancements and learnings gained from the canceled project, which will influence their future endeavors.
"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," Naughty Dog promised.
The Last of Us Online stood among several fresh multiplayer initiatives underway within Sony's studios, aligning with PlayStation 5's strategic move towards an extensive emphasis on live-service games, according to Kotaku.
Sony disclosed in a November earnings call that approximately half of the nearly dozen online games in progress would experience delays extending beyond 2025.
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