Naughty Canine has introduced it has ceased manufacturing of The Final of Us On-line, its long-in-development multiplayer title set inside its well-liked post-apocalyptic universe.
In a weblog submit, Naughty Canine explains it made the “extremely troublesome” resolution to cancel the venture after it apparently turned so huge that the studio realized it will have to dedicate treasured sources to assist it post-launch for years to come back. When confronted with the fact of getting to turn out to be a studio solely devoted to supporting a dwell service sport or to proceed making single-player experiences, it selected the latter.
Right here’s Naughty Canine’s full assertion:
We understand a lot of you could have been anticipating information across the venture that we’ve been calling The Final of Us On-line. There’s no straightforward approach to say this: We’ve made the extremely troublesome resolution to cease growth on that sport.
We all know this information will likely be robust 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 fingers. We needed to share with you some background of how we got here to this resolution.
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 super 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 concerning the path during which we have been headed.
In ramping as much as full manufacturing, the large scope of our ambition turned clear. To launch and assist The Final of Us On-line we’d need to put all our studio sources behind supporting submit launch content material for years to come back, severely impacting growth on future single-player video games. So, we had two paths in entrance of us: turn out to be 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 venture. The learnings and investments in expertise from this sport will carry into how we develop our tasks and will likely be invaluable within the path we’re headed as a studio. We have now multiple formidable, 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 once we’re prepared.
Till then, we’re extremely grateful to our group in your assist all through the years.
<img loading="lazy" src="https://www.gameinformer.com/websites/default/recordsdata/types/body_default/public/2023/05/26/c4da2713/tlou_factions_concept_art_2.jpg" alt="The Final Of Us Multiplayer Sport" title="The Final Of Us Multiplayer Sport" class="image-style-body-default" />
The Final of Us On-line idea artwork
The Final of Us On-line was initially supposed as a multiplayer mode hooked up to The Final of Us Half II, serving as a successor to the primary sport’s Factions mode. Nonetheless, as its scope expanded, Naughty Canine made the choice to make it a bigger standalone expertise as a way to prioritize releasing the single-player marketing campaign of Half II, which arrived in 2020 to crucial acclaim (whereas polarizing followers). The Final of Us On-line made its extra formal debut throughout Summer time Sport Fest in 2022, although the studio solely revealed idea artwork and gave no launch window.
In January, Naughty Canine launched new idea artwork, promising to share extra particulars concerning the sport later this yr. In Could, the studio said it wanted extra time to work on the venture amidst studies of a troubled growth. In October, 25 workers have been laid off throughout varied departments (principally QA), with studies stating that TLOU On-line’s growth was successfully “on ice.” Just a few weeks later, Sony delayed the title alongside an unknown variety of upcoming live-service titles.
This information serves as an enormous blemish on an in any other case nice yr for the franchise. Final month, Sony introduced The Final of Us Half II Remastered, a modernized model of the 2020 sport launching subsequent month with new enhancements and additions, equivalent to its roguelite mode No Return. HBO’s The Final of Us sequence premiered earlier this yr to crucial acclaim and gained the Sport Award for Finest Adaptation. The franchise even obtained its personal haunted home at Common Studios Halloween Horror Nights. Though the writing was on the wall for The Final of Us On-line’s demise, it’s unhappy to know that it gained’t come to fruition.
Supply: Sport Informer
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