The developers of Last of Us Online, Naughty Dog, continue to disappoint fans. Earlier the developers have let down its fans in multiple ways. And now came the final blow when they announced that they were shutting down the development of the game.
Naughty Dog has made headlines for a variety of issues regarding the upcoming online multiplayer title The Last of Us. First, co-president Evan Wells announced his retirement at the end of 2023 after serving for over 19 years. Post that Neil Druckmann, the creative director and lead co-writer of Naught Dog’s titles including The Last of Us, revealed that the studio leadership was going through restructuring.
Next came the news that the studios were laying off a considerable number of their developers. They later announced that they would go as planned irrespective of layoffs. Amidst all this, there was uncertainty among the community regarding the future of The Last of Us and Naughty Dog’s upcoming projects.
The Last of Us Online canceled
Naughty Dog published a blog post announcing that it was canceling its upcoming The Last of Us Online title. “We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game,” the post read.
The blog explained the background of how the developers reached the decision. “The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential. As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed,” it read.
They further clarified that in the process of ramping up to full production, the scope of their ambition became clear. Thus in order to release and support The Last of Us Online they would have to put all their studio resources behind to support the post-launch content for years to come.
As a result, this would severely impact the development of future single-player games. Thus they say, “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.”
They ended the blog assuring players that they have more than one ambitious, brand-new single-player game that the studio is currently working on. They added that they cannot wait to share more about what comes next.
Fans react to the cancellation of The Last of Us Online
The fans obviously saddened a huge chunk of fans who were looking forward to the game. Several users expressed their disappointment with the announcement. On the other hand, there was also a group of users who believed that it was a wise decision on the part of the developers.
Users were of the opinion that it is better to cancel a title instead of delivering a product that does not live up to expectations. A user ‘Umair’ wrote, “To be fair, it’s preferable to cancel it than to release subpar content and harm the franchise.” Another user ‘Vinnie’ wrote, “Tbf better to cancel it than release some rubbish and ruin the franchise.”
Smart of them… The Day Before scenario was a good lesson for game developers
— Uzumaki D. Luffy (@Luffyped) December 15, 2023
Several fans were reminded of what recently happened with Fntastic and its long-standing title The Day Before. After years in development, Fntastc finally revealed the early launch of The Day Before on December 7, 2023. However, it opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews from fans which eventually led to the developer announcing its closure within just a couple of days.
Several fans pointed out that The Last of Us just avoided the stance that The Day Before went through. The same user ‘umair’ says, “The Last of Us managed to avoid “the Day Before” scenario.” A user ‘luffyped’ wrote, “Smart of them… The Day Before scenario was a good lesson for game developers.”
Users also expressed that it is better Naughty Dog realized that they were not going to do justice to the title and hence scrapped it rather than upset fans later on.