The Final of Us On-line is useless. Naughty Canine introduced in the present day that the multiplayer spin-off of the hit sequence is not in growth, citing considerations about managing ongoing content material for a live-service recreation whereas nonetheless attempting to provide the single-player blockbusters the PlayStation studio is known for.
“We understand lots of you will have been anticipating information across the challenge that we’ve been calling The Final of Us On-line,” Naughty Canine wrote in a December 14 replace. “There’s no straightforward option to say this: We’ve made the extremely tough determination to cease growth on that recreation.”
The studio mentioned that as manufacturing on the challenge ramped up, it grew to become clear that “we’d must put all our studio sources behind supporting publish launch content material for years to return, severely impacting growth on future single-player video games.” The alternatives have been apparently between turning into a “solely live-service video games studio” within the mould of recent 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 recreation, was first introduced throughout Summer season Recreation Fest 2022. The spin-off was billed because the studio’s “largest 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 obscure statements and idea artwork. Then in Might of this 12 months, Bloomberg reported that the manufacturing workforce on the sport had be scaled again following unfavourable suggestions from an inside assessment by Bungie, which Sony acquired final 12 months. On the time, the studio posted a statement on Twitter saying that whereas issues have been progressing properly, the sport required extra time. By October, nevertheless, Kotaku reported that the challenge had been “placed on ice” amid some inside reshuffling and dozens of contracted builders being laid off.
The Final of Us On-line was considered one of a variety of new multiplayer tasks in growth throughout Sony’s studios because the PlayStation 5 maker invested in a large 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 could be delayed previous 2025.
Within the meantime, Naughty Canine continues to be engaged on a “brand-new single-player recreation” it plans to disclose someday sooner or later.
Right here’s Naughty Canine’s full weblog publish:
We understand lots of you will have been anticipating information across the challenge that we’ve been calling The Final of Us On-line. There’s no straightforward option to say this: We’ve made the extremely tough determination to cease growth on that recreation.
We all know this information shall 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 wanting ahead to placing it in your palms. We needed to share with you some background of how we got here to this determination.
The multiplayer workforce has been in pre-production with this recreation since we have been engaged on The Final of Us Half II – crafting an expertise we felt was distinctive and had super potential. Because the multiplayer workforce iterated on their idea for The Final of Us On-line throughout this time, their imaginative and prescient crystalized, the gameplay bought extra refined and satisfying, and we have been enthusiastic concerning the route during which we have been headed.
In ramping as much as full manufacturing, the large scope of our ambition grew to become clear. To launch and assist The Final of Us On-line we’d must put all our studio sources behind supporting publish launch content material for years to return, severely impacting growth on future single-player video games. So, we had two paths in entrance of us: turn out to be a solely stay 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 happy with everybody on the studio that touched this challenge. The learnings and investments in expertise from this recreation will carry into how we develop our tasks and shall be invaluable within the route we’re headed as a studio. Now we have multiple formidable, model new single participant recreation 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 on your assist all through the years.
