Majority of Naughty Dog Was Working on The Last of Us Online Before It Was Cancelled
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier has revealed that the "majority" of Naughty Dog's staff were working on The Last of Us Online, the studio's cancelled multiplayer project, before it was scrapped in late 2023. This challenges the widely held assumption that the multiplayer game was a minor side project while most of the studio focused on the upcoming single-player title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which only became the studio's main focus after the cancellation.
According to Schreier, the majority of Naughty Dog's workforce spent much of the 2020s split between The Last of Us Online and various PS5 remakes and remasters, including The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. As a result, the acclaimed studio has yet to release a wholly new game for the current PlayStation generation, with Intergalactic now expected to launch next year.
- Most of Naughty Dog worked on cancelled multiplayer title, not Intergalactic
- Intergalactic only became the main focus after 2023 cancellation
- Studio has released no new game this generation, only remakes/remasters