Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida played Naughty Dog‘s ill-fated The Last of Us Online and said “it was great”.
Factions, as the game became known as, was an online multiplayer spin-off from Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic solo drama, but was cancelled by Sony at the end of 2023 as the studio didn’t want to become a “solely live service games studio”.
Destiny developer Bungie was drafted in to assist during development, but raised concerns about the game’s “ability to keep players engaged for a long period of time”, according to a report at the time.
Yet Yoshida, who recently left PlayStation, was able to play the game before it was cancelled, which he discussed in an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (thanks Push Square) saying he “played the game and it was great”.
“The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it,” said Yoshida. “But Bungie explained [to them] what it takes to make live service games, and Naughty Dog realised, ‘Oops, we can’t do that! If we do it, we can’t make Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.’ So that was a lack of foresight.”
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is Naughty Dog’s next game, a single-player sci-fi hack ‘n’ slash revealed at last year’s The Game Awards.
Yoshida spoke further on live service games at Sony, stating that no first-party studio had been forced into the genre.
“From my experience, when studios see the company has a big initiative, [they realise] riding on that gives them a better chance of getting a project approved and supported,” he explained. “It’s not like [current PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst] is telling teams they need to make live service games, it’s likely mutual.”
At one point, Sony had over 10 live service games in development it planned to launch before March 2026. “That phenomenon of the live service game… that has, in a very large part, fuelled the enormous growth in the gaming industry that we’ve seen over the last ten years,” said (now former) Sony exec Jim Ryan back in 2022. “I think that trend towards live services will continue, and if you look for a model in our category of entertainment, which supports sustained engagement over a long period of time, live services games arguably fit that bill better than a subscription service.”
Gradually, though, the company has cancelled these live service projects and Ryan has since left the company. Most notably, Sony shut down Concord shortly after release. Last month, two games at Days Gone developer Bend and remake studio Bluepoint were cancelled following a “recent review”.
Yoshida did not comment on these projects beyond: “Yeah, it sucks”.
Sony’s recent PlayStation State of Play was light on first-party announcements, perhaps due to the large number of cancelled projects. The company’s other live-service shooter Fairgame$ has reportedly been delayed to next year.
In an interview earlier this week, Yoshida discussed his 2019 move from president of SIE Worldwide Studios to overseeing Sony’s indie developer initiative. “Well, I had no choice,” he said. “When Jim [Ryan] asked me to do the indie job, the choice was to do that or leave the company.”
He also addressed current issues in the games industry such as slowed development and layoffs. “I think it’s an overreaction to the Covid situation,” he said. “Companies invested too much, including ourselves. Then we had to face reality and make adjustments. If you take out the Covid years you’d have smoother growth over the years.”
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