Naughty Dog has announced that it has officially ended development on The Last of Us Online, with the studio explaining that the decision was made so it could continue to focus on crafting the narrative-driven single player experiences it’s known for. And interestingly enough, it turns out there are more than one of those games in development at Naughty Dog right now.
The same was confirmed by the developer in the official blog post announcing The Last of Us Online’s cancellation. Naughty Dog wrote, “We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we’re working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.”
Studio president and creative director Neil Druckmann previously confirmed in June last year that his next directorial single player project had entered development.
What these projects are, or how many of them are simultaneously being worked on, is anyone’s guess right now – and Naughty Dog itself probably won’t be making any announcements on that front in the near future – but as always, there’s no shortage of speculation and rumours out there. Leaks have repeatedly insisted that The Last of Us Part 3 is in development, while there has also been speculation about a new IP being in the works.
