One element that was notably absent since the original release of The Last of Us was the online component known as Factions. I thoroughly enjoyed playing that mode, and it proved to be a robust game mode that garnered support from both the developer and the community in the first game.
Today, Naughty Dog, the developer of The Last of Us, has announced that The Last of Us Online will not be released. In a blog post, Naughty Dog explained that despite the multiplayer team being in pre-production during the development of The Last of Us Part II, they ultimately decided to halt the project due to resource limitations.
In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.
-Naughty Dog regarding The Last of Us Online
As of now, the sole option for accessing multiplayer in The Last of Us is through the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, using The Last of Us Remaster (not The Last of Us Part I). This is because the server for the PlayStation 3 version has been shut down. At least with this news, we can hopefully look forward to more games from Naughty Dog.
