In a recent interview with the Lance E. Lee Podcast from Tokyo (transcription via Kotaku), the game’s former director, Vinit Agarwal, spoke out about how its cancellation and the disappointment he felt at learning it was being cancelled, especially after spending so much time on it.

“That was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on that game, and it was soul-crushing. I remember honestly finding out that it was getting cancelled 24 hours before it was announced to the public. That’s how I found out about the game getting cancelled, and it was just unfortunate, and they had to do that because they have to control the messaging.”

Stating that it was “around 80% complete”, he seems to have empathy for Nought Dog’s decision to move in a safer direction with whatever Neil Druckmann was cooking up at the time.

“Basically, at one point, a decision had to be made. ‘Okay, make this game or make the next game that Neil Druckmann was directing, the president of the company…They had to pick the game that was kind of the bread and butter of the studio rather than this experimental game that I was working on that I believe was going to be really big, but unfortunately couldn’t see the light of day.”

Agarwal has since landed on his feet, founding a new studio and working on a title that seems to be making good use of all the lessons he learned during his time working on The Last of Us Online. While details are still under wraps, we’re hoping that those lessons bring some familiar elements, and perhaps even a dash of familiarity for what could have been.

From a very unique take on bounty hunting to cool takes on espionage, several excellent ideas have been buried by their studios, with a variety of factors coming into play that didn’t let them see the light of day. We’re taking a look at a few that we would have loved to play, but sadly never got the chance to.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Crackdown 3

While its Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode drew heavily on Microsoft’s bold idea to bring cloud computing to the Xbox One, Crackdown 3 didn’t really catch on the way it should have, despite being a lot of fun. The final product was sadly nowhere close to the high bar that was set for it, with the result being a very destructible city that was largely devoid of the players it was meant to host.

The dream of entire city blocks collapsing in front of you with your console handling core tasks and the cloud rendering all of the destruction just didn’t materialize, and the game suffered for it as a result.

2. Project Milo

This was a tricky one for a long time, with a lot of back and forth about whether it was actually intended to be made into a game taking place between its creators and Microsoft. Still, it would have been cool to see a game with AI actively responding to you and acting on your voice commands.

This was a relationship sim that could have been quite innovative for its time, but it simply faded away into the background amid all the noise surrounding its “release”.

3. Star Wars 1313

We’d be lying if we said that this one didn’t sting a little. For starters, it was supposed to have Boba Fett as its frontman with a fast-paced gameplay loop that relied on gadgets and more traditional weapons in lieu of lightsabers and The Force. As if that wasn’t enough, it was purported to emulate Star Wars Bounty Hunter while bringing a gritty, darker tone to its story.

Sadly, LucasArts never got to make this one a reality, and we never got to explore District 1313 and see what the underbelly of Coruscant had to offer.

4. Silent Hills/PT

A Silent Hill title that was going to feature a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (whose horror credentials are quite well known), with Norman Reedus playing its protagonist, sounds like a dream, right? That’s sadly all it was to most of the gaming world, with Konami pulling its playable demo from the PlayStation Store shortly after its cancellation.

All we can do is look back fondly at the supernatural time loop being brought to the table, and of course, shudder at the thought of Lisa constantly lurking out of sight just waiting to jump at us. A Playable Teaser was all this one was ever going to be in the aftermath of Kojima’s exit from Konami.

5. Prey 2

Aside from the obvious draw of an amnesiac protagonist affected by the presence of The Sphere from the first game, the chance to be a bounty hunter on an alien planet while uncovering the truth about his abduction sounded too good to be true. That was probably a valid insight when we look back at this one, with the game’s plans to make you embody a bounty hunter never coming to fruition.

We would have loved the chance to make use of all the agency this one gave us as we took on the role it wanted us to, but all we can do now is smile somberly at what could have been.

6. Scalebound

An action-RPG that gave fans of the Eragon novels a lot to be excited for, this one might have been a legendary title had it actually made its way to its audiences. Getting to command a literal dragon in the heat of battle, and even directly take control of it to unleash its fearsome abilities, is an idea that we’re yet to see even in the current generation of games. And that’s without even considering the co-op potential that the concept could bring to the table.

Its eventual cancellation after years of development is a showcase of how even the best of ideas may not translate to commercially viable titles in the long run.

7. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots

Although this one did make way for Rainbow Six Siege, the thought of being part of a unit led by a morally grey former Navy SEAL against a terrorist group that was willing to impose its own beliefs on New York’s residents had all the makings of a Tom Clancy story that was true to the author’s vision and tone.

However, the decision to cancel the title and scrap this unique concept is a choice that we continue to question to this day.

8. The Lord of the Rings: The White Council

An open-world RPG where you would work under the guidance of the White Council, with its story and themes drawing from both the films and books, sounds like a Lord of the Rings adventure that might have put even Frodo and Sam to shame.

But it seems that the idea was cast into the fires of Mount Doom, and while we do have Shadow of War to help us cope, we can’t help but wish for a Palantir to view what it might have turned out to be if its version of Middle-earth was allowed to take shape.

9. Agent

Set in the Cold War and rumored to place its players at the heart of all of the espionage, political assassinations, and counter-intelligence that the era brought along, Agent was a great idea. Even Sony seemed to think so, locking down its IP with the belief that it could “set the bar for the industry” as per Michael Shorrock, who headed SCEA’s third-party relations at the time.

A stealth-action game with Rockstar at the helm certainly fits that description, but like the agents it aimed to bring to life, this one quietly vanished, presumably sacrificed in order to focus more resources on the development of GTA V.

10. Project Titan

The World of Warcraft killer that spent seven years in development continues to have us wondering whether it might have been able to live up to its lofty ambitions.

Despite the best of Blizzard coming together to bring this sci-fi MMO to life, complete with cool mech suits and rumored superhero-esque powers for its characters, along with a unique twist where you play as a normal citizen of the world by day while battling it out at night, Project Titan was unable to get off the ground. This is a cancellation that still rankles, if we’re being honest.

11. The Last of Us Online

Among the many projects that were cancelled in the aftermath of Sony’s ill-fated live-service push, this one was the most disappointing to us. The concept definitely had its merits, with a massive world filled with The Infected being the perfect stage for a survival-horror gameplay loop, complete with a standalone story to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately for it, the concept was scrapped after concerns about its long-term viability began to rear their head. For our part, we would have played this one for hours on end if it had made its way into our hands.

12. Duke Nukem Forever

While Duke was a hero who was quite clear about where he stood on alien invasions, the creative team behind this one could have emulated his conviction. That wasn’t the case, and this title switched engines during its development so many times that it’s hard to think about the game it was meant to be versus the one that we got.

Its vision was ultimately diluted by a needless focus on technical relevance, and as one of the record holders for being the longest game in development, we can’t help but feel that this was a game that deserved to be greater than the sloppy experience it ultimately devolved into.

13. Final Fantasy Versus XIII

The darker, more gothic take on the franchise was quite appealing when it first came to light, and Prince Noctis was quite an intriguing character. But with Final Fantasy XIII and eventually Final Fantasy XIV constantly dividing the attention of its team, and engine issues caused by the PS3’s aging tech, this one was pulled back and repurposed into FFXV.

When the trailer for the game eventually came around, it felt like it had changed almost completely, ditching its darker tone for something better aligned with the franchise’s overall light-hearted trappings. It would then be a solid five years before XV came out, and Versus XIII quietly vanished from the hearts and minds of its potential players.

14. The Getaway 3

We were quite fond of the original Getaway’s unique way of presenting its world, with the sort of cinematic quality that comes along quite rarely. With its parallel storylines and lack of a HUD and other elements, it was quite immersive and also fun to play as a Sony-backed sandbox. The sequel carried on those traditions, and we were delighted to know that a third title was in the works.

But The Getaway 3 was lost to the annals of time, with its cancellation never actually being announced, but quite clearly understood by the gaming world at large.

15. Deep Down

A sci-fi fantasy co-op adventure that would have its players exploring time-hopping dungeons is something we’re still waiting to see. It doesn’t help that Deep Down had its gameplay drawing inspiration from Dark Souls, which was already among our favorites to begin with.

But its 2013 reveal, and the lack of any concrete evidence of its development over the years has essentially made this once unique concept nothing more than vaporware. We’re holding out hope that it eventually becomes a great game, but we’re not going to hold our breath.

BONUS: Wonder Woman

Monolith’s proprietary Nemesis System, a unique mechanic that worked so darn well in the Shadow franchise, was the perfect way to craft a Wonder Woman story that could really dig into the character’s lore who could defy challenges and come back stronger.

That’s probably why the cancellation of this one continues to be an annoyance to us, as the concept is probably not going to make it to any other titles in the near future.

And that’s a wrap on our picks for great gaming ideas that showed a lot of promise but did not ultimately make their way to their players. Here’s to hoping that we don’t have to make another one of these lists over the next few years, though!

“I’ve been in the game industry for about 15 years and I’ve worked at Naughty Dog for 10 of them,” said Agarwal (via machine translation). “Before that, I was involved in the development of free-to-play games, but when I wanted to make a more hardcore game. I encountered the multiplayer mode [Factions] that was included in the first [The Last of Us] and became very addicted.”

“I applied for Naughty Dog and fortunately joined the company. There are a lot of amazing people in the industry at Naughty Dog, so I was worried that I would be fired in a month, but I was able to work from junior game designer to game director. Then, I became independent in early 2025.”

As for his new project, Agarwal has confirmed that work on it has been going on for “several months”, and that it is currently in a playable state. While he isn’t yet ready to start showcasing the game, he does go on to describe it as a multiplayer title with cinematic action gameplay. He also said that, rather than being a new triple-A game, this project is “triple-indie” in its scope, explaining that it has “indie-like speed” but without the big budgets of a typical AAA project.

“There’s not much we can say yet, but the new game is a multiplayer game, and we aim to bring the cinematic action we’ve been familiar with from our previous titles to multiplayer,” he said. “We’re already in contact with partners, and we expect to have more information to share in the future.”

The studio working on the game is fairly small, with ten developers working on the game right now. Agarwal has said that he wants it to grow up to have a maximum of 30 employees in the future, with the low headcount being maintained to keep “a sense of speed and flexibility”. The studio itself is split into two offices, with Agarwal working out of an office in Japan while Pettinati heads up a base in the USA.

To help the development of the new project, Agarwal went into some of the things he had previously worked at during his tenure with Naughty Dog, confirming that he was involved with games like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and The Last of Us Part 2. In these games, Agarwal helped develop the final boss of both Uncharted titles, as well as the boss fight between Ellie and Abby in The Last of Us Part 2.

According to Yoshida, while The Last of Us Online was turning out quite well, Destiny developer Bungie noted that it would have difficulty in retaining players for a longer period of time. This comes down to the fact that it takes a lot of effort for a studio to continuously produce new content to keep players hooked on to a live service game.

The decision was ultimately made at Naughty Dog to start focusing on its next game, Intergalactic, rather than having the studio split its attention between two titles that would both require quite a bit of work.

“The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it,” said Yoshida. “But Bungie explained [to them] what it takes to make live service games, and Naughty Dog realised, ‘Oops, we can’t do that! If we do it, we can’t make Intergalactic.’ So that was a lack of foresight.”

Yoshida also noted in the interview that PlayStation never forced any of its first-party studios to start focusing on live service games. Rather, studios noticed PlayStation’s own focus on live service games, and would pitch their ideas to the company with the hopes of their games getting approved.

“From my experience, when studios see the company has a big initiative, [they realise] riding on that gives them a better chance of getting a project approved and supported,” Yoshida said. “It’s not like [current PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst] is telling teams they need to make live service games, it’s likely mutual.”

The Last of Us Online was one of many casualties of PlayStation’s attempts at getting big live service hits. While it was cancelled before seeing the light of day, other titles were not as lucky. Concord is a notable release where, despite having taken several years to develop with a big budget behind it, the game ended up with its servers shut down in less than a month.

The studio behind Concord, Firewalk Studios, was also subsequently shut down following the game’s demise. While Sony itself has been rather quiet about its other live service games that might be in development, rumours from earlier this year indicate that Concord‘s failure might have prompted the company to shut down its other live service games as well, including titles being developed by Bluepoint Games and Bend Studio.

Yoshida has previously spoken about Sony’s focus on live service games. Back in January, he spoke about Jim Ryan’s and Herman Hulst’s push for studios to start working on live service games, and how Yoshida would have pushed back against the ideas because Sony was known for its well-crafted single-player experiences.

For instance, technical designer Nathaniel Ferguson, who had been working on The Last of Us Online since February 2022, called the project the “highlight” of his career, saying that it “will always be a very special project for me”. Meanwhile, game designer Karl Morley – who is currently at fellow first party PlayStation studio Firesprite – said that he “learned more on this project than any other in my career and had more fun playing this game than any other multiplayer game before and since.”

Several other developers who worked on the project also posted about it in the wake of its cancellation, including former QA lead Drew Wilson, associate producer Abigail Tan, and others.

A recent leaked image showcased The Last of Us Online’s main menu screen, portraying a player character seated in an indoor environment, with options displayed on-screen for an in-game store, battle pass, and more.

Though The Last of Us Online has been cancelled, Naughty Dog has confirmed that it’s currently working on multiple single player narrative-driven games.

https://twitter.com/ngmferguson/status/1735767760813298084

Absolutely gutted. And gutted for all the awesome people I worked with on this.

I learned more on this project than any other in my career and had more fun playing this game than any other MP game before and since. https://t.co/EEs1RYH5wc

— Karl Morley (@SheepGoMOO) December 15, 2023

https://twitter.com/_drewilson/status/1735496452967931937

i’m incredibly devastated by this news, but i couldn’t be more proud of the team for all the hard work and determination put into this project ❤️ loved every minute working on this project. long live the last of us online https://t.co/HjFaAgFkL7

— abby (@abbyistan) December 15, 2023

Though it doesn’t show gameplay, it’s our first (and perhaps only) look at the actual game itself. Showcasing the title’s main menu screen, the image shows a woman sitting on a couch and looking out a window with the menu options shown in the foreground, including tabs for a battle pass, a lobby, an in-game store, and what are referred to as the “study” and the “bunk”. The image was shared on ResetEra by prominent leaker Dusk Golem.

Naughty Dog has said that it cancelled The Last of Us Online because supporting the project would have meant becoming an exclusively live service studio, something it didn’t wish to do. The developer is currently working on multiplayer single player narrative-driven games.

Naughty Dog has announced that the multiplayer game, which it was internally referring to as The Last of Us Online, has been cancelled. Supposedly, the project’s vast scope and ambitions meant that all of Naughty Dog would have had to focus primarily on supporting the game with post-launch content for years to come, and the studio made the decision to instead continue to focus on the narrative-driven single player experiences it has become known for.

“The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part 2 – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential,” Naughty Dog wrote. “As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.

“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.

“We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio.”

Interestingly, Naughty Dog has also confirmed that it has multiple major single player games currently in development.