The Last of Us Online will no longer be happening. Naughty Dog has the major announcement that they were stopping the development on the game. This is surprising because it has been in pre-production since they were working on The Last of Us Part II. As the studio was ramping up to full production, they realized their ambitions were a little too massive.
If they had continued down trying to make The Last of Us Online, they would have to pull all of the studio’s resources behind post launch content for years to come. This, in turn, would impact development on future single-player games for those years. Thus the decision to continue to focus on single player games that defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.
Concept art that was for The Last of Us Online
While the company has scrapped the project, they promise that the investments in the technology and experience will be invaluable for the studio. In the announcement, they promise that they have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game. They’re also excited to share news about it when they’re able.
The Last of Us Online was supposed to launch with The Last of Us Part II in 2020. They had first delayed it because, as Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann said, it had “evolved beyond the team’s ambition”. Then delayed again in May when Sony, the parent company, reduced the number of people working on it while they had Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, reassess quality and viability. As it turns out, they had doubts about the long-term viability of the game.
While we wait for Naughty Dog to give us a sneak peak at what they’re planning, we’ll just have to be content with the remaster of The Last of Us Part II. The game should be coming out on January 19th as a PlayStation 5 exclusive.
Source: Naughty Dog’s Update
