Former Naughty Dog Employee Regrets The Last of Us Online Being Replaced by The Heretic Prophet

A standalone multiplayer game developed by Naughty Dog, set in the The Last of Us universe, was reportedly 80% complete before the studio decided to cancel the project in 2023.

The Last of Us Online reveals more details.

Although Naughty Dog is best known for its story-rich single-player titles like The Last of Us , the studio has also achieved success with multiplayer experiences. Many Uncharted games have featured popular online modes, and The Last of Us from 2013 included an online mode called Factions . While this mode was discontinued on PlayStation 3 in 2019 when the servers shut down, players can still experience it on PlayStation 4 and 5 via the game's support .

After Factions mode became extremely popular in the community, Naughty Dog decided to develop a standalone multiplayer game set in the same universe. Titled [Game Name], the game was first announced in 2022 and described by the studio as an 'extremely ambitious project'. Naughty Dog even expanded the team to ensure sufficient resources for a large-scale multiplayer product. However, the project was canceled in 2023, and the game's director later revealed that it was about 80% complete at that time.

In a recent episode of the Lance E. Lee podcast (via Push Square), former Naughty Dog employee Vinit Agarwal stated that The Last of Us Online was 'almost complete'. He clarified that the project was approximately 80% finished and that he worked on it 'for nearly seven years', from 2016 until its cancellation in 2023.

Agarwal explained that the reasons stemmed largely from financial issues and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'During COVID, the gaming industry boomed because everyone was staying home. In 2020, a lot of money poured into the gaming industry because people were playing games more than ever before – what else were they doing at home?'

The Heretic Prophet replaces The Last of Us Online

When online gaming boomed in 2020 due to global lockdowns, Agarwal said this was one of the reasons  PlayStation  decided to invest heavily in  The Last of Us Online. "The project was running pretty well internally,"  Agarwal shared. But as people started returning to the office, Naughty Dog had to choose between a new experiment with  The Last of Us Online  and Neil Druckmann's next project – the PS5 exclusive. 

 'It was a painful moment for me,' Agarwal shared . 'I spent seven years working on that game. To know it was canceled just 24 hours before the official announcement…it was truly heartbreaking.'  When it was canceled in 2023, Naughty Dog said they believed the experience was unique and had 'enormous potential'.

However, once it entered full production, the scale and ambition of the project became all too clear. As a live-service game, Naughty Dog would have to maintain and support it for many years, meaning a continuous outpouring of resources and impacting single-player projects – the studio's 'legacy' that made it famous.

A year later, Naughty Dog announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet at The Game Awards 2024. This is a brand new science fiction IP featuring a star-studded cast. The studio stated that the game will deliver an "emotionally rich, character-focused journey" along with "the most daring and innovative story ever." Currently, there is no specific release date or timeframe for the project, but fans are eagerly awaiting more information as the game approaches its two-year anniversary since the announcement.