Reports suggest that Naughty Dog’s canceled multiplayer game for The Last of Us was well into development before it was scrapped, leading to some backlash within Sony.
In a recent podcast, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier shared insights into the scrapped project, highlighting the disruption it caused at Sony. Initially discussing Bungie layoffs and concerns about the studio’s upcoming game Marathon, Schreier shifted focus to Sony’s live service games, including Concord.
Describing Sony’s approach as “trend-chasing to the extreme,” Schreier criticized the pivot of online games from single-player studios. He mentioned the ongoing development of the Horizon Zero Dawn online game, announced in 2022, but expressed uncertainty about its release, citing rare successes like Helldivers 2.
Regarding The Last of Us Online, Schreier revealed that the project was in development for around four years with a large team before its cancellation in December.
Commenting on the cancellation, Schreier stated, “That is an expensive proposition for something that was a miss,” noting the repercussions at Sony following the decision.
Naughty Dog’s rationale for scrapping the project was to maintain a focus on single-player narrative games rather than becoming exclusively a live service games studio, a move supported by Schreier.