Vinit Agarwal, former director of the cancelled Last of Us multiplayer game, revealed that the project was about 80 percent complete when Naughty Dog axed it roughly three years ago. In an interview with Lance E. Lee, Agarwal described the decision as stemming from a post-COVID decline in online gaming and a choice to prioritize single-player titles led by studio president Neil Druckmann. He called the cancellation soul-crushing after seven years of work.
Naughty Dog cancelled its planned Last of Us multiplayer game in early 2023 to redirect resources toward signature single-player narrative projects, including the upcoming PS5 title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Agarwal, who has since left the studio to found a new one in Japan, shared these details during Lance E. Lee's LelPodcast. He noted that Sony heavily invested in online games like this one around 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when player numbers surged as people stayed home. The game was performing well internally and reached roughly 80 percent completion, Agarwal said.
