The Last of Us Online Praised by Former Sony Executive

Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida has expressed praise for Naughty Dog’s canceled The Last of Us Online live-service game. While the project won’t see the light of day, Yoshida’s comments imply that Naughty Dog had a solid The Last of Us multiplayer title on its hands.

Almost a year before the launch of The Last of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog announced that the game’s originally-planned multiplayer mode had grown enough in scope to spawn a standalone project, which eventually went on to be known as The Last of Us Online. Development on the live-service game persisted for around four years, but it was revealed at the tail end of 2023 that Naughty Dog unfortunately chose to scrap The Last of Us Online. The reason behind this was that supporting the live-service title would gobble up Naughty Dog’s resources and workforce, essentially rendering it unable to develop single-player games.

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The cancelation of The Last of Us Online was a hefty disappointment for fans who waited years to learn about the game. Naughty Dog never formally revealed The Last of Us Online either, leaving its gameplay and overall ambition a complete mystery. However, former PlayStation Indies boss Shuhei Yoshida dropped some new insight about The Last of Us Online in a recent Sacred Symbols+ podcast episode. Yoshida revealed that he played The Last of Us Online and thought it was “great,” which isn’t very specific, but doesn’t come as much of a surprise either given Naughty Dog’s proven track record of high-quality games.

Naughty Dog Was Very Passionate About The Last of Us Online

He further elaborated on The Last of Us Online‘s development, stating that the idea for the game was Naughty Dog’s own and that the studio “really wanted to make it.” However, Bungie’s mid-2023 review of PlayStation’s live-service portfolio awoke Naughty Dog to the fact that The Last of Us Online‘s post-launch support would endanger the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which Yoshida described as a “lack of foresight.” The executive also cleared the air around some public sentiments around PlayStation’s live-service games by confirming that Sony doesn’t force its first-party studios to develop them.

Yoshida did note that there can be a tendency among studios to align their pitches with big company initiatives to increase their chances of approval and support. It seems unlikely that Naughty Dog would’ve gone this route, though, as the studio holds a lot of prestige (and therefore creative autonomy) within PlayStation’s first-party silo. With The Last of Us Online now a long-lost proposition and PlayStation’s live-service initiative scaling down even further, Naughty Dog’s future seems to be firmly planted in single-player experiences.

Game

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Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards. In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey. Includes the complete The Last of Us single-player story and celebrated prequel chapter, Left Behind, which explores the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever.

Systems

Released

June 14, 2013

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language