The developer of the famous Uncharted and The Last of Us series, Naughty Dog, has recently released a statement to inform fans that release of the much-awaited The Last of Us multiplayer game will be delayed.
In their latest tweet, the developer has stated that it needs more time for development in order to achieve the best possible result. The post mentions:
“We’re incredibly proud of the job our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we’ve realized what is best for the game is to give it more time.”
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) May 26, 2023
However, there is a silver lining. While asking fans to be patient about the upcoming The Last of Us multiplayer game, the developer announced that the team is also working on other titles, including a new single-player game. Naughty Dog hadn’t announced anything about a new title before this, and the news has certainly sparked excitement amongst the fans.
A recent Bloomberg report had disclosed that the Naughty Dog leadership has decided to scale back some of the development team members from the project, concerned with lack of clear direction. The statement by Naughty Dog seems to be damage control for this information.
The Last of Us multiplayer has been in development for a long time and has changed directions often. At first, this multiplayer was supposed to be an extension for the single player version of The Last of Us Part 2, alike The Last of Us Part 1. However, the scope of Part 2’s single player campaign turned out to be massive, and the developer decided to focus on that. This resulted in the release of Part 2 in 2020, with multiplayer mode to follow soon.
In June 2022, Naughty Dog declared their intention of releasing The Last of Us multiplayer as a standalone project, with a greater scope than merely being an extension of the single player campaign. As the series continued gaining critical acclaim and was adapted into a TV show, it became clear that Naughty Dog would need to shell out the absolute best title in order to maintain the success of this series.
Source – Naughty Dog (via Twitter)
