Since the launch of PlayStation 5, Naughty Dog has not released a single completely new game, aside from remasters and collections. Intergalactic and a possible return of The Last of Us may change that, but before those projects, there was one title that was meant to change everything — The Last of Us Online.
In an interview with YouTuber Lance E. Lee, Vinit Agarwal, director of the cancelled The Last of Us Online, has revealed that the game was already 80% complete when it was cancelled, and that he only learned about the decision 24 hours before it was officially announced. When asked why a project that had already passed the 80% mark and was in its final stage was scrapped, Agarwal pointed to two main reasons: changing trends and rising costs.
Naughty Dog moved into the live-service space in 2020, when online games were much more popular due to lockdowns. Once those restrictions ended, player preferences began to shift once more. That led to reduced investment in these types of projects. With lower funding, Naughty Dog reportedly felt unable to cover the long-term costs of maintaining a live-service game.
According to Agarwal, the studio had to choose between continuing development on The Last of Us Online and moving forward with the project that Neil Druckmann, the studio president, was set to direct, which later became Intergalactic. He said, “They had to pick the game that was kind of the sole bread and butter of the studio rather than this experimental game that I was working on, which I believed was going to be really big, but unfortunately couldn’t see the light of day.”
He described the cancellation as a “devastating” and “soul-crushing” moment, especially after spending seven years working on the game. As mentioned earlier, he only learned about the cancellation 24 hours before the public announcement. According to him, the decision was kept secret until the very last moment because the studio wanted to “control the messaging” about the project’s cancellation, especially since it was such a major game being shut down.
By delaying internal communication, the studio likely wanted to reduce the chance of the news leaking early, which could have led to rumors, speculation, and fan theories spreading before the official announcement was ready.
