LogInInstead of becoming a "solely live-service games studio", Naughty Dog chose to focus on single-player narrative games.
Image credit: Naughty Dog
After hearing so much about the highly anticipated game, The Last of Us multiplayer, it got canceled by its developer, Naughty Dog. Earlier this year, some reports stated that the game was postponed and the production was slowed down, later, in November 2023, the developer said that it was still in the works, and now, eventually, Naughty Dog has pulled a plug on the project.
If your first thought was "Why would they do that?" Here's what the developer wrote in its blog. According to the studio, it has been working on pre-production for The Last of Us Online while also developing The Last of Us Part II. They were excited about the project's direction but to release and support The Last of Us Online, they would need to allocate all of their studio resources to post-launch content for an extended period, significantly impacting the development of future single-player games.
"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 the development of 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," reads the official statement.
So, instead of becoming a solely live-service games studio, Naughty Games decided to move on and develop single-player games. Hopefully, we hear more about their new single-player projects soon.
"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," teased the studio.
As for now, we can look forward to The Last of Us 2 Remastered, which is coming to PlayStation 5 this January.
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