Former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida has said Naughty Dog’s cancelled multiplayer game ‘The Last of Us Online’ “was great” when he played it, and explained the studio chose to cancel the project in order to focus on ‘Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’.
Former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida has said Naughty Dog’s ill-fated ‘The Last of Us Online’ “was great”.
The studio had been working on the multiplayer spin-off to its beloved zombie series until it was cancelled in 2023, and Yoshida – who was the President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios from 2008 to 2019 – has revealed he had “played the game and it was great”.
Naughty Dog had brought on former ‘Halo’ and ‘Destiny’ studio Bungie to work on ‘The Last of Us Online’, but reportedly had expressed its concerns that the game didn’t have the ability to “keep players engaged for a long period of time”.
After realising the title would eat into its development time on the upcoming singleplayer sci-fi game ‘Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’, Naughty Dog decided to drop ‘The Last of Us Online’.
During an appearance on the ‘Sacred Symbols+’ podcast, Yoshida said: “The idea for’ The Last of Us Online’ came from Naughty Dog and they really wanted to make it, 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: The Heretic Prophet’.’
“So that was a lack of foresight.”
The former PlayStation head added no development team had been forced to work on live-service titles during his tenure, with studios instead pitching projects they were most confident about to Sony.
Yoshida explained: “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.
“It’s not like [current PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst] is telling teams they need to make live service games, it’s likely mutual.”
Naughty Dog’s cancelled TLOU Online ‘was great’, former PlayStation boss says
