Naughty Dog says its Last of Us multiplayer game needs more time in the oven

One of the more notable omissions from this week’s PlayStation Showcase was something from Naughty Dog. Many (including your own) expected the studio to reveal more details about its Last of Us multiplayer game, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer for more information on that title.

In a sentence posted on Twitter, Naughty Dog said, “We’re incredibly proud of the work our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we’ve realized that it’s in the best interest of the game to give it more time.” As such, it now seems unlikely that we’ll hear much about the game during Summer Game Fest (where Naughty Dog offered a first look at concept art for the project last year) on June 8 or June 14, which is the 10th anniversary. . of The last of us Coming to PS3.

In a blog post in January, the study co-chair and The last of us Co-creator Neil Druckmann said that the studio would “start to offer some details on our ambitious multiplayer game The Last of Us” sometime this year. That suggests the studio wasn’t planning on releasing the title in 2023. In any case, it’s probably a good thing Naughty Dog is taking its time to get things right. The studio won’t want to be in a position where they’re releasing a game that definitely could have used more time in the oven, as was the case with the buggy debut of the last of us part 1 on computer.

Shortly after Naughty Dog posted their statement on Twitter, Bloomberg released a report citing multiple unnamed sources who said the studio is reconsidering the feasibility of the multiplayer project. The report claims that the project has not been cancelled, but many of the developers working on it have been reassigned to other projects. Currently, a “small group” remains on the project while Naughty Dog evaluates what’s next.

Sony has also reportedly asked another of its studios, Bungie, to evaluate the work Naughty Dog had done on its unnamed multiplayer game Last of Us. Bungie apparently said it had doubts about whether the game could keep players engaged for a long period of time. Given Bungie’s success with the Destiny franchise, it makes sense that the studio was called in for an opinion, though it’s also fair to say that Destiny and The Last of Us are very different games.

On a positive note, Naughty Dog says it has other games (plural) in development, “including a new single player experience.” It’s been known for a while that the studio had at least one other game in the works, but it’s unclear if this single-player title will continue the main story of The Last of Us. Naughty Dog said it hopes to “share more soon.”

“I know the fans really want The last of us part 3. I hear about it all the time and all I can say is that we’re already on our next project, so the decision has already been made,” Druckmann told Kinda Funny in March. “I can’t say what it is, but that’s the process that we went through, that there was a lot of consideration of different things, and we chose what we were most excited about.”

Update, May 26, 2023, 4:20 pm ET: This story was updated to include details about a report he just released Bloomberg about the future of multiplayer gaming.

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