Did you know that The Last of Us Part II was initially conceived to feature a multiplayer component titled The Last of Us Online? It was then known as " Factions" until Naughty Dogcanceled it in 2023.
While not much is known about the canceled game, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has played it, and said it “was great.”
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The Last of Us Online Was Canceled Because Naughty Dog Wanted To Develop Intergalactic Instead
In an interview on the Sacred Symbolspodcast(paywalled), Yoshida talked about Naughty Dog’s live service game (viaPush Square). “The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it,” Yoshida explained. “But Bungie explained [to them] what it takes to make live service games, and Naughty Dog realized, ‘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,” Ysohida added.
In the same interview, Yoshida said that first-party studios making live-service titlesweren’t forced to do so, and that it was a “mutual decision” between the developers and Sony.
Instead of The Last of Us Online, Naughty Dog opted to forge ahead with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Revealed last year at The Game Awards, Intergalactic is a sci-fi action game
Inspired by anime properties like Cowboy Bebop and Akira.
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In terms of other live-service games, Sonyrecently canceled two first-party live-service games, one of which is said to be based on God of War.
While Yoshida praised Naughty Dog’s canceled project, the former Sony executive isn’t a fan of the PlayStation division’s going all-out on live-service games. In another interview earlier this year, Yoshidasaid he’d resist PlayStation’s live service pushif he was still in charge.
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The Last of Us Part 2
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