News Former PlayStation president: Naughty Dog canceled The Last of Us Online to focus on Intergalactic
Former PlayStation president: Naughty Dog canceled The Last of Us Online to focus on Intergalactic
February 19, 2025, 06:29 PM
Former PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida recently addressed the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, which Naughty Dog scrapped in late 2023. Speaking on the Sacred Symbols+ podcast, Yoshida explained that the studio overestimated its capabilities, ultimately forcing them to abandon the project.
Yoshida added that he had played The Last of Us Online and found it "great," though he didn’t share further details.
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 PlayStation veteran also clarified that Sony doesn’t force studios to develop live-service games. Instead, studios often choose these projects themselves, as they have a better chance of securing funding.
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.
Intergalactic is set to launch exclusively on PlayStation 5, though it currently has no release date.
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