The Last of Us Online Was 'Great' but Naughty Dog Had to Choose Between It and Intergalactic: Shuhei Yoshida
Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has opened up on Naughty Dog's cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer game, Xbox launching its games on PlayStation, and more in a recent interview. Yoshida, who retired from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) last month, said The Last of Us Online was “great” but the studio could not have dedicated the required resources for a live service title without jeopardising its next project. Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer title in December 2023 and instead chose to focus on its next single-player game.
Appearing on the Sacred Symbols+ podcast (via Push Square), Yoshida touched upon the decision to abandon development on the multiplayer title, saying he “played the game and it was great”.
“The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it,” Yoshida said on the paywalled episode of the podcast published Wednesday. “But Bungie explained [to them] 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.' So that was a lack of foresight.”
Yoshida's comments fall in line with reporting from May 2023 that claimed Destiny maker Bungie, a veteran developer of live service titles, had evaluated The Last of Us Online and raised concerns about the multiplayer project's ability to keep players engaged for long periods.
Following the assessment, Sony and Naughty Dog had scaled back the team working on the project. The report had come after Naughty Dog's announcement that the online game needed more time and confirmation that it was also working on a brand-new single-player experience.
Months later, in December 2023, Naughty Dog announced The Last of Us Online had been cancelled. The studio said it was excited by direction the game was headed but decided it couldn't support the live service title consistently beyond release without impacting development on future single-player projects.
“I
Read more on gadgets.ndtv.com
