The fate of The Last of Us Online hung in the balance for a long while, with mixed signals being sent from Sony and Naughty Dog. It all started before the launch of The Last of Us Part II when it was announced that there would be no Factions multiplayer mode like in the original game.
Shortly afterward, though, the developer teased that it was simply because the studio's ambition and scope for the project was far greater than what could be allowed by a mere multiplayer mode. As such, a standalone The Last of Us Online game would be produced instead.
Naughty Dog subsequently went silent until June 2022, when writer and franchise director Neil Druckmann hyped it up with an interview at the Summer Game Fest.
They've been working on it for the past two years, and the ambition has grown. This game is big. It's as big as any of our single-player games and in some ways bigger. It's got a story. The way we're telling that story is very unique to this game. It's got a brand new cast of characters. It takes place in another part of the United States. It's being headed by veterans of Uncharted and The Last of Us. You're going to see a lot more of this game, come next year.
In January 2023, Druckmann once again talked about The Last of Us Online, calling it the 'most ambitious project ever made by Naughty Dog' and suggesting a cooperative focus for the game. As late as this March, the studio's Head of Creative told fans they could expect lots of information to be shared later in 2023.
However, in late May, Naughty Dog publicly stated this standalone game had been delayed due to needing more time. Shortly after the announcement, Jason Schreier revealed a different story: The Last of Us Online had received a negative evaluation by Bungie (purchased by Sony partly because of their live service expertise), which led to a 'reassessment' of the project's feasibility.
Two months ago, a report from Kotaku about layoffs for 25 Naughty Dog contract workers also said the multiplayer project was essentially on ice, leading fans to believe the worst. However, Game Director Vinit Agarwal wrote on Twitter in early November that The Last of Us Online was still in development.
The rollercoaster finally ended this Friday when Naughty Dog formally pulled the plug on the game. The official story is that while the project got more refined and exciting as time went on, the studio was faced with the choice of either allowing The Last of Us Online to impact (read: severely slow down) the development of future single player games since it would have to be updated for years to come or cancel the game and go back to making single player experiences. They picked the latter.
However, following the public statement, there has been a downpour of comments from studio employees on Twitter. Technical Designer Nathaniel Ferguson went as far as calling The Last of Us Online a very special project and the highlight of his career. Karl Morley, an ex Game Designer on the project who now works at FireSprite (another Sony-owned studio), said he 'learned more on this project than any other in my career and had more fun playing this game than any other multiplayer game before and since'. Vinit Agarwal replied to him and many others, praising the team's cohesion and teamwork.
Needless to say, all of these statements only make it more disappointing that we never saw any in-game footage of The Last of Us Online. Moreover, they call into question exactly why Sony and Naughty Dog would cancel a game with such potential.
After all, Sony is still very much going forward with its live service gamble, even though the timetable has been slowed down to focus on quality over quantity. Looking at Rockstar Games, while it is absolutely true that GTA Online impacted the development of new single player installments in the studio's franchises, it also brought in massive amounts of revenue. Moreover, Naughty Dog could have partnered with another developer, even externally, to offload some of the post-launch work on the game. Many developers have done the same (Bethesda with Double Eleven, for instance, which helps out with Fallout 76). It's not like PlayStation is strapped for cash, with PS5 consoles flying off the shelves now that there is no shortage any longer.
It may be a few years before we get the full picture of what really happened with The Last of Us Online. In the meantime, all we have is a leaked picture of the menu, which you can see above.
