Naughty Dog, the renowned developer behind franchises such as Uncharted and The Last of Us, has released a statement about its multiplayer title set in The Last of Us universe. In the post, the developer says it needs more time than originally anticipated for the multiplayer project, but softens the blow by teasing an unannounced single-player-focused game.
“We know many of you have been looking forward to hearing more about our multiplayer game The Last of Us,” the announcement reads. “We’re incredibly proud of the work our studio has done so far, but as development continues, we’ve realized that what’s best for the game is to give it more time. Our team will continue to work on the project, as like our other games in development, including a brand new single-player experience; we Looking forward to sharing more soon. We are grateful to our fantastic community for your support – thank you for your passion for our games, it continues to drive us.”
This statement follows Report from Bloomberg, Which led to problems in the development of the title. According to the report, the development team has been reduced while the studio leadership decides on a direction.
This multiplayer project was originally in development as a mode for The Last of Us Part II, similar to the multiplayer mode of the original The Last of Us. However, as the scope of both the single-player campaign and the multiplayer mode expanded, Naughty Dog called for the single-player campaign to be prioritized for release in 2020. In June 2022, Naughty Dog announced that the multiplayer component was now an independent project and shared the creation of concept art (above). Earlier this year, Naughty Dog released another new piece of concept art (below) and promised more details about the standalone multiplayer project later this year.
Naughty Dog’s brand new game, 2020’s The Last of Us Part II, received universal critical acclaim with a 93 on Metacritic, but proved divisive among players. In the time since that launch, Naughty Dog released the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which included remakes of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and The Last of Us Part I, a remake of The Last. of us and the last of us: left behind. Perhaps The Last of Us’ biggest impact in 2023 came in the form of the critically acclaimed first season of the HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay.
There’s no word on when we’ll hear more from Naughty Dog about this multiplayer game or the single-player project he mentioned in that statement, but since this week’s PlayStation Showcase won’t mention any of the studio’s projects, it could be a while. Before we know essential details.