Naughty Dog has just announced that their announced The Last of Us multiplayer game won’t be coming out anytime soon.
The first Last of Us game had a pretty great multiplayer mode, throwing players in a PvP environment with most of the gameplay mechanics from single-player still present. Players could even enter listen mode, allowing them to spot enemies that are on the move, even through walls. This led to some very tactical engagements, focusing on a stealthy approach. When in development, the second game in the series also had a multiplayer component, with footage of it being leaked. But that part of the game turned into its own project throughout development, and The Last of Us 2 launched as a single-player only experience.
With fans excited about the prospect of a Last of Us multiplayer game, Naughty Dog has announced they would need more time for this project. A developer from Naughty Dog had this to say: “We know many of you have been looking forward to hearing more about our The Last of Us multiplayer game. We’re incredibly proud of the job our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we’ve realized what is best for the game is to give it more time. Our team will continue to work on the project, as well as our other games in development, including a brand new single-player experience; we look forward to sharing more soon. We’re grateful to our fantastic community for your support – thank you for your passion for our games, it continues to drive us.”
The latest rumors about the situation are pointing fingers towards Sony. It seems that their long-term goal for multiplayer games is games as a service. And since they’re also backing an upcoming Horizon multiplayer game, they are worried that both titles would be vying for the same audience. Reports have also indicated that Sony directly reassigned developers to another project after an evaluation.
While it’s sad to hear about delays for such a promising project, it’s usually for the best. If the latest games launched in a disastrous state are any indication, any project requiring more time shouldn’t be panned. This is reminiscent of the famous quote from Shigeru Miyamoto while he was working on Ocarina of Time, which took three years of development. “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” So instead of whining about delays, we should accept the situation and see it as an opportunity for the game to not launch in an unfinished state, followed by a letter of apology from the developers.
