Could The Last of Us multiplayer be cancelled?

Multiplayer Last of us This is one of Naughty Dog’s most anticipated projects, but there is growing concern that it will never see the light of day. Reportedly Kotakuthe studio fired at least 25 developers who worked in different areas, although most of them were responsible for testing quality control.

The above-mentioned media claim that those laid off are contractors, not permanent employees, and that the company is putting pressure on them to keep news of the layoffs as little publicized as possible. But that’s not all, as they will not be offered compensation and will be forced to work until the end of October before finalizing their departure.

It is in this context that there are obvious problems with multiplayer Last of us They returned to center stage. As already mentioned, Naughty Dog has frozen its development. And although it has not yet been formally cancelled, the prospects do not seem to be the best.

This is not the first time they talk about inconveniences around spin off from Last of us focused on multi-user experience. Last May, journalist Jason Schreier of Bloombergreported that Sony has decided to reduce the resources allocated to this proposal. To the point that he dismembered the team assigned to the said work and reassigned most of the participants to other projects.

At the time, Naughty Dog attempted to contain potential public backlash by releasing statement on X (Twitter). In it, the study assured that multiplayer Last of us everything was still in the folder, but I needed “more time”.

Naughty Dog layoffs and concerns about multiplayer Last of us

New layoffs at Naughty Dog will make it clear that even the furor over the HBO and Max series could not straighten the path of the multiplayer project. Let us remember that this proposal was originally intended as part of The Last of Us Part 2but it grew enough that the studio was able to pursue it as a standalone project.

Since then, nothing is officially known about this alternative. And if indeed its development is frozen, as is now reported Kotakuwe’re unlikely to know much more about it.

In fact, the future of the PlayStation franchise has been the source of much speculation this year. In January, Neil Druckmann, one of the game’s creators, assured that Sony was not putting pressure on Naughty Dog to develop a new part of the game. Last of us. The executive even opened the door to exploring other intellectual property.

In March, when HBO’s television adaptation was the talk of the town, a third Last of us. Meanwhile, in July, some details of the story and the characters who will play major roles in it became known. And in the middle are details of the supposedly problematic development multiplayer.

According to Jason Schreier, Bangui was key to cooling plans for the multiplayer game. Developers Fate, which is a key part of Sony’s games-as-a-service strategy, would have reviewed Naughty Dog’s work and given it a negative rating. Apparently, the company would say that the project will not be able to hold the attention of players for long.

At this time, Sony and Naughty Dog are not commenting on the new layoffs or the state of the game’s multiplayer. Last of us. We will closely monitor the news.