Last of Us Multiplayer Game Was 80% Complete Before It Was Canceled

A standalone multiplayer game developed by Naughty Dog and set in The Last of Us universe was apparently 80% completed when the studio made the decision to cancel the project in 2023. Work on The Last of Us Online began alongside the development of The Last of Us Part 2, as Naughty Dog was aiming to expand on the multiplayer mode featured in the original 2013 title, which was known as Factions. Unfortunately, the project became too ambitious for the studio and was ultimately canned after nearly seven years in development.

Although Naughty Dog is best-known for creating some of PlayStation’s most beloved single-player, narrative-driven experiences, such as The Last of Us and Uncharted, it’s also found success over the years with its multiplayer ventures. Not only did numerous Uncharted games include very popular online multiplayer modes, but the original Last of Us from 2013 also shipped with an online component known as Factions. Support for the mode on PlayStation 3 ended in 2019 when the game’s servers were shut down, but it can still be played on PlayStation 4 and 5 via The Last of Us Remastered.

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The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Was “Very Close to Done”

With Factions becoming massively popular among The Last of Us community, Naughty Dog decided to build on the mode by creating a standalone multiplayer game set in the same universe. Dubbed as The Last of Us Online, the highly anticipated title was first announced in 2022, with Naughty Dog calling it an “extremely ambitious undertaking.” The studio even expanded to ensure that it had the necessary resources to build a full-scale, standalone multiplayer game with such massive scope. Sadly, the project was canceled in 2023, and the game’s director has now said it was 80% done at the time of its cancellation.

Speaking on a new episode of the Lance E. Lee Podcast (via Push Square), former Naughty Dog employee Vinit Agarwal said The Last of Us Online “was very, very close to done.” He specifies that it was at 80% completition and that he worked on the project for “nearly seven years,” between 2016 and its cancellation in 2023. Agarwal explains that a lot of it came down to funding and the COVID-19 pandemic. “During COVID, the games industry saw a huge growth because everyone was at home. So, in 2020, money was flooding into the gaming industry because people were playing a lot more games all of a sudden because they’re at home — what else are they gonna do?”

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With online gaming receiving a huge boost in 2020 due to most of the world being on lockdown, forcing people to stay at home, Agarwal says this was part of the reason why PlayStation decided to fund The Last of Us Online. “The game was doing really, really well internally,” the former director says. However, as people began returning to work, Naughty Dog was forced to choose between a new experimental title (The Last of Us Online) or Neil Druckmann’s next project, which we now know to be the highly anticipated PS5 exclusive Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. “That was a devastating moment for me,” Agarwal said. “I spent seven years working on that game. To find out that it was getting cancelled 24 hours before it was announced…it was just unfortunate.”

When The Last of Us Online was canceled back in 2023, Naughty Dog said it felt the experience was unique and had “tremendous potential.” However, once full production ramped up, the studio said the scope and ambition became clear. As a live-service title, Naughty Dog would have been required to support The Last of Us Online for years to come, which would have meant pumping resources into the title and taking away from other single-player projects that have “defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”

One year later, Naughty Dog would go on to reveal Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet at The Game Awards 2024. The brand-new IP is a science fiction game with a star-studded cast, which Naughty Dog says will be an “emotional, character-driven journey” featuring the studio’s “wildest, most creative story yet.” There’s currently no release date or window for Naughty Dog’s next game as of yet, but fans are hoping to see more from the title soon as it approaches the two-year mark since its reveal.