Naughty Dog today announced the cancellation of their long-awaited Last Of Us Online multiplayer game. You can read their full statement here: https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/an_update_on_the_last_of_us_online
I would recommend reading the full article on their site. That said, it came down to a choice, and here is how they summed it up.
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 development on 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.
This cancellation is disappointing as personally, I was looking forward to seeing what Naughty Dog could achieve in the multiplayer live service space. Ultimately, however, I wouldn’t have wanted this beloved studio to walk away from the single-player games they are most well known for unless they wanted to. Clearly they have decided they didn’t want to change their identity and I can’t wait to see what they work on in the future. What would you like to see next from Naughty Dog?
I for one, am left wondering; what does this mean for Playstation’s other live service projects?