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Naughty Dog has cancelled the in-development multiplayer mode dubbed The Last Of Us Online, much to the chagrin of fans.
In an announcement today they said it basically boiled down to long-term costs- a persistent online multiplayer mode means a team managing it, which means less resources for projects like The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered.
“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear”, the post reads. “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”, it continues.
While announced last year we’ve never actually been shown gameplay for The Last Of Us Online- prior to it being cancelled Bloomberg reported that the team developing it had been internally scaled down, following a less-than-favorable evaluation.
That doesn’t mean Naughty Dog is 100% going to be focusing on narrative modes, however- they recently showed off the roguelike mode coming to The Last Of Us Part II Remastered, which features more replayable content and a variety of survivors to choose from.
