Work on "The Last of Us Online" began concurrently with the development of "The Last of Us Part 2," as Naughty Dog aimed to expand the multiplayer mode present in the original 2013 title, known as "Factions." Unfortunately, the project became too ambitious for the studio and was ultimately canceled after nearly seven years of development.
Although Naughty Dog is best known for creating some of PlayStation's most beloved single-player, narrative-driven games like "The Last of Us" and "Uncharted," it has also achieved success with its multiplayer endeavors over the years. Not only did several "Uncharted" games include highly popular online multiplayer modes, but the original 2013 "The Last of Us" also came with an online component known as "Factions." Support for this mode on PlayStation 3 ended in 2019 when the game's servers were shut down, but it can still be played on PlayStation 4 and 5 via "The Last of Us Remastered."
As "Factions" became extremely popular within The Last of Us community, Naughty Dog decided to upgrade the mode by creating a standalone multiplayer game set in the same universe. Titled "The Last of Us Online," the long-awaited game was first announced in 2022, with Naughty Dog calling it an "extremely ambitious endeavor." The studio even expanded to ensure it had the necessary resources to develop a fully standalone multiplayer game of such massive scope. Unfortunately, the project was canceled in 2023, and the game's director has since stated that it was 80 percent complete at the time of cancellation.
Speaking in a new episode of the Lance E. Lee Podcast (via Push Square), former Naughty Dog employee Vinit Agarwal said that "The Last of Us Online" was "very, very close to being done." He specified that the project was 80 percent complete and had been in development for "almost seven years," between 2016 and its cancellation in 2023. Agarwal noted that much of this came down to funding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"During COVID, the gaming industry saw a huge boom because everyone was at home. So, in 2020, money flooded the gaming industry because people suddenly played a lot more games since they were at home—what else were they going to do?"