Summary
FormerPlayStationveteran Shuhei Yoshida claimed in a recent interview thatThe Last of UsOnline was “great” before being cancelled so the team could focus onIntergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
As the last few years have proven time and time again,the live-service space is one of the most competitive in the gaming industry, and something thatvery few can successfully break into. That hasn’t stopped plenty of studios from trying, even if many of them give up before sticking it out for long.
The live-service space is so difficult, in fact, that we’ve seen a lot of studios give up before even getting started.The most high-profile example of this is undoubtedly The Last of Us Online, which Naughty Dog worked on for many years before cancelling the game altogether towards the end of 2023 so that it could focus on other games.
The Last of Us Online was originally planned as a multiplayer add-on to The Last of Us Part 2, before being turned into a separate, much more ambitious project.
Former Sony Veteran Says The Last Of Us Online Was “Great” Before It Got Cancelled
Ever since The Last of Us Online was cancelled, Naughty Dog hasn’t revealed anything more about the project and what happened to it, although it’s claimed that Bungie’s advice was a big part of the decision. While a lot of details about The Last of Us Online remain shrouded in mystery,former PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida has shared some more details in an interview with Sacred Symbols.
As pointed out by Push Square, Yoshida revealed that he played The Last of Us Online before it was cancelled and thought that it was “great”, which makes it all the more painful that it never ended up releasing. Yoshida also said that the idea came directly from Naughty Dog, who really wanted to make the live-service title.
According to Yoshida, Bungie explained to Naughty Dog how much effort goes into a live-service game, which made thestudio realise that it wouldn’t be able to put all of its attention on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. It seems like that epiphany is what made Naughty Dog cancel the project altogether, meaning it chose Intergalactic over The Last of Us Online.
But Bungie explained 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'. - Shuhei Yoshida
While Naughty Dog has been fairly open about ditching The Last of Us Online so that it could focus on single-player titles, it is interesting to get outright confirmation from Yoshida that one project was chosen over the other. I just wish he hadn’t told us how great the online mode was supposed to be now that we’ll never get it.
