Looks like Naughty Dog’s multiplayer venture for The Last of Us is a no-go! They were calling it The Last of Us Online behind closed doors, but they’ve officially pulled the plug on it. In a recent blog post, the studio spilled the beans, saying this online project was so huge that it’d gobble up all their attention, diverting focus from their beloved narrative-driven single-player games—Naughty Dog’s bread and butter so far.
Their statement hinted at the sheer size of their vision for The Last of Us Online, saying, “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.” Tough call: either dive into the live service game world or stick to what they do best—those story-driven, single-player epics that Naughty Dog is known for.
The fate of The Last of Us Online has been up in the air for a while now. Some time back, there were rumblings that the project had hit the brakes, with devs shifting gears to other stuff at the studio. Naughty Dog had chimed in, backing the work done and also hinting at a fresh single-player game in the works.
Then came October, and there were reports about Naughty Dog letting go of around two dozen contractors. That same scoop hinted that The Last of Us multiplayer project was more or less on ice. It was supposed to be Sony’s foray into multiplayer, but Sony’s since scaled back, chopping its planned lineup of live-service games by half for the early 2026 release slot or sooner.
The specifics about which games got shifted or axed aren’t crystal clear. Some might’ve never seen the light of day or been revealed in the first place.
Stuff like this gets us wondering about the games in the pipeline. And hey, if you snag something we’ve mentioned here, just so you know, we might get a piece of the pie from your purchase. Full disclosure and all that jazz.
