Rumour – Naughty Dog Has Cancelled Its The Last Of Us Multiplayer Game

Naughty Dog has been working on a multiplayer title set within the world of The Last Of Us for some time now, and we’ve seen no more than a couple of pieces of concept art.

Concept art, and announcements that the project has been delayed and even scaled down, following reports that Bungie evaluated the project and deemed it would struggle to be successful as a live service.

Now, the latest rumour is that the game has been entirely cancelled internally by Naughty Dog, and the team is instead taking the best parts of this multiplayer title, and trying to find a home for them in The Last Of Us Part III.

This rumour comes from The Tipster, and it remains a rumour for now so take it with a grain of salt. The Tipster claims everything previously mentioned, along with that Naughty Dog chose to cancel the multiplayer title over concerns a poor release would tarnish the studio’s image.

It’s worth mentioning that this rumour arrived after the news that the principal monetization designer who was working on the project left, and after reports that dozens of developers at Naughty Dog had been laid off.

This on top of reports from earlier this year that Naughty Dog was “re-evaluating” the game’s direction, and confirmation from Naughty Dog that it wanted to give the project “more time” makes the idea that it might’ve been cancelled not as far-fetched as it may have been a year ago.

Which means that with all this put together, they could each be signs that the game is in fact cancelled, though it could still always just be The Tipster taking a shot at something that if it turned out to be correct, would earn them a lot of free credibility for a good guess.

Source – [The Tipster via Gameranx]