The Final of Us On-line is lifeless. Naughty Canine introduced as we speak that the multiplayer spin-off of the hit sequence is now not in improvement, citing issues about managing ongoing content material for a live-service sport whereas nonetheless making an attempt to provide the single-player blockbusters the PlayStation studio is known for.
“We notice lots of you could have been anticipating information across the mission that we’ve been calling The Final of Us On-line,” Naughty Canine wrote in a December 14 replace. “There’s no simple approach to say this: We’ve made the extremely troublesome choice to cease improvement on that sport.”
The studio mentioned that as manufacturing on the mission ramped up, it turned clear that “we’d must put all our studio sources behind supporting submit launch content material for years to return, severely impacting improvement on future single-player video games.” The alternatives have been apparently between changing into a “solely live-service video games studio” within the mould of contemporary day Bungie, which makes Future 2, or “proceed to give attention to single-player narrative video games which have outlined Naughty Canine’s heritage.”
The Final Of Us On-line, which many many followers beforehand known as Factions after the multiplayer mode from the unique 2013 PlayStation 3 sport, was first introduced throughout Summer season Sport Fest 2022. The spin-off was billed because the studio’s “greatest on-line expertise” ever, and as giant as any of its single-player video games.
However Naughty Canine by no means confirmed the sport past imprecise statements and idea artwork. Then in Might of this yr, Bloomberg reported that the manufacturing group on the sport had be scaled again following unfavourable suggestions from an inner evaluation by Bungie, which Sony acquired final yr. On the time, the studio posted an announcement on Twitter saying that whereas issues have been progressing nicely, the sport required extra time. By October, nonetheless, Kotaku reported that the mission had been “placed on ice” amid some inner reshuffling and dozens of contracted builders being laid off.
The Final of Us On-line was one among plenty of new multiplayer tasks in improvement throughout Sony’s studios because the PlayStation 5 maker invested in an enormous shift towards extra live-service video games. In November, Sony revealed throughout an earnings name that half of the roughly dozen on-line video games it was engaged on can be delayed previous 2025.
Within the meantime, Naughty Canine continues to be engaged on a “brand-new single-player sport” it plans to disclose someday sooner or later.
Right here’s Naughty Canine’s full weblog submit:
We notice lots of you could have been anticipating information across the mission that we’ve been calling The Final of Us On-line. There’s no simple approach to say this: We’ve made the extremely troublesome choice to cease improvement on that sport.
We all know this information might be powerful for a lot of, particularly our devoted The Final of Us Factions group, who’ve been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently. We’re equally crushed on the studio as we have been trying ahead to placing it in your palms. We needed to share with you some background of how we got here to this choice.
The multiplayer group has been in pre-production with this sport since we have been engaged on The Final of Us Half II – crafting an expertise we felt was distinctive and had great potential. Because the multiplayer group iterated on their idea for The Final of Us On-line throughout this time, their imaginative and prescient crystalized, the gameplay obtained extra refined and satisfying, and we have been enthusiastic in regards to the route during which we have been headed.
In ramping as much as full manufacturing, the huge scope of our ambition turned clear. To launch and assist The Final of Us On-line we’d must put all our studio sources behind supporting submit launch content material for years to return, severely impacting improvement on future single-player video games. So, we had two paths in entrance of us: change into a solely dwell service video games studio or proceed to give attention to single-player narrative video games which have outlined Naughty Canine’s heritage.
We’re immensely pleased with everybody on the studio that touched this mission. The learnings and investments in know-how from this sport will carry into how we develop our tasks and might be invaluable within the route we’re headed as a studio. We now have a couple of bold, model new single participant sport that we’re engaged on right here at Naughty Canine, and we can not wait to share extra about what comes subsequent after we’re prepared.
Till then, we’re extremely grateful to our group in your assist all through the years.
