Director of Cancelled The Last of Us Online is Working on New Multiplayer Title at New Studio - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 August 2025 / 5,968 Views
The director on the now cancelled The Last of Us Online, Vinit Argawalm, speaking with Game*Spark revealed he has launched a new studio in Japan and is working with former Naughty Dog creative director Joe Pettinati to develop a similar game.
"My main titles were Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and The Last of Us Part 2," said Argawalm (via VideoGamesChronicle). "I worked on both multiplayer and single-player.
"I was mainly in charge of boss battles, and Naughty Dog’s boss battles are generally one-on-one situations. So I wanted players to feel like they were fighting a human player, not an AI, even in single-player.
"To be more specific, I worked on the final boss in A Thief’s End and the fight between Ellie and Abby in The Last of Us Part II. I used all my knowledge of multiplayer to create the feeling that you were fighting a human.
"A big part of what inspired me to [go independent] was seeing the potential in combining Naughty Dog’s specialty, cinematic action, with multiplayer."
Argawalm has opened an office in Japan, while Pettinati has remained in the US. Their game is being developed across both offices. The team currently has around 10 employees and plans to grow to around 30 people.
This new game is described as a "triple-indie" by Argawalm and has been in development for a few months. It isn't ready to be shown off yet, but he has been "playing it with friends every week."
"There’s not much we can say yet, but the new game is a multiplayer game, and we aim to bring the cinematic action we’ve been familiar with from our previous titles to multiplayer," he stated. "We’re already in contact with partners, and we expect to have more information to share in the future."
The Last of Us Online was cancelled in December 2023.
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
Wonder if they're going to make the same game they were making under ND just without the LoU being IP
To a degree I'm sure. But I'm doubtful since the point was to have the story telling aspects of TloU contained in a live service game. I'm not sure how a new studio/ indie achieves this.
Bon a lesser scale perhaps, but let's see what they come up with. They may surprise us.
I’m sorry…but why? Have they really not learned anything after having canned nearly a dozen multiplayer projects over the past few years? This doesn’t make sense to me.
edit: My bad. I thought this was saying ND was involved in development. Yeah, I’m walking this comment back lol.
This guy left Naught Dog after working there for years and was in charge of boss battles, then working on a cancelled MP title.
What's to "learn"? Here's the answer "we aim to bring the cinematic action we’ve been familiar with from our previous titles to multiplayer,".
Let him make his game.
There is always room for multiplayer titles to exist. You can criticize the direction some studios have taken without acting liek mutliplayer is not allowed to exist. Forming new studios is the best way to handle it so you don't permanently transform an existing studio.
I guess I’m just a tad bit wary given the recent issues at Sony. I agree that there is room for multiplayer games to exist, but this really comes off as Sony not letting go of this push to make the next Fortnite. They simply are not calling it “live service” upfront. Maybe I’m wrong in this judgment…I would certainly like to be wrong.
Nothing from the article suggests Sony is involved with the project at this stage. So why u mad bro?
ND is owned by Sony, no?
Edit: Reading through the article again, it seems that Naughty Dog isn’t involved. The head of this new JP studio was just involved in previous ND projects. My bad. Yeah, if this isn’t Sony’s resources being used up again, then go wild i guess lol.
Admitting mistakes is underrated, so kudos to you for doing so!
