The former director of Naughty Dog‘s cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer game has vowed he will never let something he works on “not see the light of day again”.
Over the weekend, Vinit Agarwal said it was “wild” how many of his former Naughty Dog team still get in contact with him to say “how amazing” The Last of Us Online was going to be.
It’s “still the best multiplayer game they’ve ever played”, Agarwal wrote on social media, before adding: “Never going to let what I work on not see the light of day again.” The former Naughty Dog director closed by thanking the Last of Us community for their “support and confidence”.
Earlier this month, Agarwal claimed The Last of Us’ online project was roughly “80 percent” finished when it was cancelled. At this time, he revealed he found out about its cancellation just 24 hours before the public announcement. “It was soul crushing,” Agarwal said. “It was just unfortunate and they had to do that because they have to control the messaging.”
Following the release of The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020, developer Naughty Dog had plans to launch a standalone multiplayer game. Prior to the base game’s PS4 debut, the developer confirmed this multiplayer aspect would not be released alongside Part 2, as had been expected. Back in 2019, Naughty Dog explained its efforts to evolve The Last of Us Part 1’s multiplayer Factions mode for the sequel “grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single player campaign” and therefore it would release separately.
The project then hit a number of stumbling blocks, with Naughty Dog stating more time was required in May 2023. But, despite this, the studio maintained the game was coming up until December 2023, when The Last of Us’ standalone multiplayer project was ultimately cancelled.
Elsewhere in Naughty Dog news, The Last of Us actor Troy Baker recently suggested we will see Joel again, “whether that be Naughty Dog or somebody else”.
