Naughty Dog Cancels The Last of Us Online Game - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 December 2023 / 4,831 Views
Naughty Dog announced The Last of Us Online has been cancelled.
The studio said this decision was made so it could focus on single-player narrative games instead of continuing work on this game and be forced to become solely a live service games oriented studio.
"We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online," reads the update from Naughty Dog. "There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game.
"We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently. We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision.
"The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential. As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.
"In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. 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.
"We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio. 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."
A remastered version of The Last of Us Part II, titled The Last of Us Part II Remastered, will launch for the PlayStation 5 on January 19, 2024.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Yess! Finally back to story games thank the lord
Live service games these days tend to come with expectations of frequent updates, to a degree that might not make sense unless you have the staff to spare for that when it's kind of a side-project like this.
You almost want a development team to build the foundations of these games, then palm it off to another team to do content and support updates for it's entire life.
If you have just a single developer building and supporting the game, whilst trying to undertake another future project... You are just never going to have enough resources.
It sucks when any game is canceled after years of development resources have been put into it. But, if you set aside the PR speak, and keep in mind what Bungie is understood to have said about this game a while back, you can see that the game just wasn't going to be very good.
Nobody cancels a game that is several years into development because they suddenly realized that it would take a lot of work for a long time after release. First of all, live service games have been around for a while now, and developers understand that ongoing content requires serious work. But, even if ND somehow didn't understand that, this still doesn't really make sense. Development of post-launch content can be farmed out to other studios, and/or they can reign in expectations about how much and how long that support will continue after release. They didn't do either of those things though. They just canceled a game that they've put, presumably, tens of millions of dollars into developing. That only happens when you realize that the game just isn't going to be good.
Remember, Sony is a giant, publicly traded corporation. Major decisions are made by math. There is no "ahh, man, we changed our minds and don't want to have to support this game for the next few years". On the contrary, developers that have put their heart and soul into the project for the last couple of years would be trying to convince management to keep development going. What almost definitely happened is that upper management at ND and/or Sony did the math, and decided that they can't keep dumping millions of dollars into a game that isn't going to return millions more to them. TLOU is a huge franchise, with many, many fans. So, for Sony to look at the game and say "this ain't going to sell well enough to justify further investment", it would have to be a pretty weak game.
Like I said, it sucks when any game is canceled this far into development. But, I prefer that ND not tarnish TLOU with a subpar entry. Plus, this just puts us that much closer to launch of part 3, which is what most of us really want anyway.
Although I agree your wider sentiment about the math, I think the notion that the game must be really weak misses the point about live service games & opportunity costs.
The thing with live service games, they often don't just arrive and flop. A Luke warm hit will continue with years of full development before the plug is pulled and that'd equate to ND as we know them being lost for a whole generation without any major gain. If you're going to sacrifice your biggest developer to a project it better be obvious it's going to print tons of money. There just isn't that certainty with GAAS & clearly the teams expertise didn't translate into a product which reassures this.
If this was just any developer, Sony would probably consider the gamble worth it. Tighten their budget, streamline the ambition of the title... But this is literally their golden boy who has produced 2 of the biggest new single player IPs of the last 2 decades.
Sony/Naughty dog have had to do the calculation of what is more important. ND being allowed to create another mega smash franchise, something they achieved twice within a single generation on the PS3. Or for them to commit their once most prestigious developer to a generation of serving a live service product that no one is certain on?
I don't think the title has to be especially weak for the decision to be made that this is not the right way to invest in the Naught Dog team.
That would all make sense, if they pulled the plug a couple of years ago. But they didn't. Nothing has changed in the live service space in the last couple of years that would make it clear that ND would have to tie up more resources than expected.
They were willing to tie up resources up until they realized the game wasn't going to be very good, which would mean that it wouldn't sell very well. There is just no other way that a decision of this sort comes about in corporate America.
It depends on who was pulling the strings It looks like Sony push toward Live service meant that ND was stuck with doing just that and asking a developer of narrative driven games to successfully pivot toward gaas no matter their previous record was always going to be a fifty fifty bet at best, and we now have the result of that bet.
I'll disagree because all the rumors of the Bungie visit was that it would have issues retaining users for a long time and generating recurrent profit, not that the base game was bad (that would be very hard to believe based on original factions being quite decent).
At most I could believe it isn't very good at generating revenue or keeping people active for several months in a row.
I'm devastated. As someone who still plays Factions, I was so hyped for this. I wish they had just included an updated Factions mode in Part II.
What an addition that would've been. Tbh, I'd honestly pay for a standalone Factions, because Factions still has a userbase: ppl would play and it would be damn fun. Oh well...
Hopefully it will return for Part III.
Bummer but probably for the best
That genuinely sucks. What gets me is no one really asked for said expansion to blossom into a full-on GaaS game anyways. Acting as a supplemental thing to fall back on would've been fine with the vast majority of fans.
This is kinda sad to hear but i think it's a good decision ultimately, the game was clearly having issues in development and i'm glad they're choosing to cancel a project they're not fully confident in instead of releasing it at all cost
I'm not up to date with the whole development cycle but looking in seems that a factions style add on was looked at from a Sony management with gaas dollar signs in their eyes as an opportunity to make a hit gaas game, I can imagine it now ND its just an mp expansion and we make narrative driven games Sony suit , no your ND look at your record , response our games are a result of many different personnel over the years we aren't omnipotent don't be modest after all your (last woke shit game*sarcasm) got game of the year showing that you are indeed Naughty
Gods so do what dogs do and go fetch the big ball of gaas.
Survivors all day
"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."
Thats just silly. They know people want SP games, so they use that as an excuse. I dont care about the MP of TLOU, but this was a weak excuse.
So they have time to remaster tlou2 but can't do something on the same level as tlou1 multiplayer. What a load of bullshit.
Here's the most likely scenario. After buying bungie and seeing what naughtydog was doing, sony didn't want nautudogs online live serive game to get in the way of that. Imagine having people hooked onto the game and being the next best thing. That takes away from sony's plan with bungie.
'Remastering' a PS4 game to PS5 graphics is basically tweaking settings. They made a new mode for it and that new mode might have actually come from a side effect of the development of this now cancelled game. So yes, they can.
I'll be playing the remaster next month
You always hope for the best, but sometimes, things just don’t pan out. At least ND will now focus on their strengths. Including a new IP!
I was never going to play it, but it's a shame they can't shift it to another studio if that's what Sony wanted maybe Bungie could have spun off another division to work on it.
So will MP be implemented for the sequel?
They made the right decision, thankfully. Stick to what you know and what fans love. At worst, this could have been another Anthem or Suicide Squad situation with devs doing something that's clearly not in their wheelhouse. Live services on the whole seem to be, well, if not dying, then at least finding the ceiling pretty fast. There's only room for so much and trying to capture a seat at the table is a HUGE gamble. I'm glad ND decided not to take that bet.
Definitely not upset
Good on Sony, Factions and Last of Us brand would of sold that game and short term gain to the detriment of the brand is not good business.
Some bads come for a greater good. ND is a giant of narrative cinematic experience, focusing on this and dropping "eternal support" for Gaas is the correct choice.
It's sad that years of development has been lost but glad that we're now moving closer to a new ND single player game. They've had a rough few years, I was worried about their direction...
If Sony do want to make something similar to GAAS, probably better it starts attached to single player experience ala COD/GTA etc
Just a damn shame with both this, the Bungie purchase and live service approach. It's fine to branch into multiplayer but it feels like they're pushing it way to hard because it might be more lucrative.
Many of these companies see the money things like Fortnite or League makes and want a piece of the pie, sometimes there just isn't enough to go around though, how many whales are there really? I'd much prefer them to make games like they are used to.
Was anything ever shown of this multiplayer game? Smells more like Vapor imo.
IMO it was stupid to cancel it, the long term support could have been done by another team and not Naughty Dog themselves.
Also, IMO, its the reason why we are getting TLoU2 remastered, to get back some of the lost money invested on TLoU Online development.
At least the focus on single player games being the priority and not changing in good news, as even a Sony could have some more online focused games, making one of their very most talented studios focus on those would be a crime, I would rather have TLoU3 than Online without a second thought.
Bungie took a look at the project and told the dogs that the project was way too massive and scale it down a bit.
Project was put on ice after lay offs and now it's cancelled.
Seems to me the factions 2.0 was a battle royale or a three way battle between the factions of wolfs, bald ritualistic group can't remember the name and Ellie Tommy's faction lol.
Just make a remake of factions and bring it over to part2
That really sucks, was probably my most anticipated game for any platform. My PS5 will continue to collect dust.
Shows companies that deliver on both SP and MP games deserves alot more respect. Its clearly not easy to do.
How many studios are doing that? Not many, I think.
The last of us remastered and the original did a good job with the sp and factions 1.0
But yes it is a bloody rare sight to have a universal acclaimed sp and mp in one game
Nintendo EPD, Capcom, arguably Blizzard back in the day. But yea not many, and it mostly comes down to the size and how they are structured. Ubisoft would also count for example if they weren't split into dozens of smaller studios.
Lets see, Nintendo, Coalition, Rare, Obsidian, Rockstar, Activision, Blizzard and many more.
Yes, there are a handful, out of the hundreds a video game developers, that have managed to put out high quality single player and multiplayer content. And, you are right, they do deserve credit for pulling off something that the vast majority of developers have not been able to do, at least not do very well.
Thats all i am saying, that those that try to push out both SP and MP dont get enough credit, if anything they get crucified more with ratings lowered for the extra content.
Clown media not doing their job once again.
Did Jim Ryan & Sony force Naughty Dog to try to do an online game ? Was ND ever really serious in the 1st place about an online game but Jimbo made them do it ?
Did Sony know or care that it was going to affect ND single player development so badly, that ND has come out and clearly said they can’t do both.
This points to more proof that Jim Ryan was fired, because he was the main guy pushing online games from single player Sony studios.
Also, ND clearly need to fire Druckmann who was the lead on the disastrous Last of US 2, and the climbing simulator aka Uncharted 4. Only then when the likes of Druckman is fired, will I have confidence again in naughty dog.
Last week they made a big ass fucking party for this guy that ruined everything and didnt like.
Good! TLOU is singleplayer only. Never think again about ruining it with multiplayer and online garbage, please and thank you!
The first game came with a supposedly great multiplayer mode.
Can confirm. It was the first Naughty Dog MP that genuinely earned the adjective 'great' in my view, although partially sullied by some payable DLC weapons for newcomers.
