'I Played The Last of Us Online And It Was Great,' Says Yoshida 1

One of the biggest bummers of this entire generation was the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, or Factions as it’s perhaps better known.

Naughty Dog announced it was working on a standalone version of its popular The Last of Us multiplayer prior to the release of The Last of Us: Part 2.

It later teased the project multiple times, describing it as incredibly ambitious and even showing off concept art. But the online outing was eventually cancelled in 2023 when the developer made the decision to focus on its single player output instead.

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Speaking as part of an interview with Sacred Symbols+ (paywalled), ex-PS Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida revealed that 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,” he explained. “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 continued that, to his knowledge, no first-party studio has been forced to make live service games. He noted that sometimes teams see the direction the company is heading, and pitch their titles accordingly.

“From my experience, when studios see the company has a big initiative, [they realise] riding on that gives them a better chance of getting a project approved and supported,” he explained. “It’s not like [current PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst] is telling teams they need to make live service games, it’s likely mutual.”

Sony recently cancelled two live service projects from Bluepoint and Bend Studio, which has left fans feeling frustrated. Many feel both teams have now wasted potentially an entire generation on projects which will never see the light of day.

Yoshida, who’s been focusing his time and energy on indies over the past four years, didn’t have much to add on the status of those projects, but he simply concluded: “Yeah, it sucks.”

[source patreon.com]