Summary
The Last of UsOnline’s cancellation was not a “bloodless affair” with consequences being felt withinSony, according to a report from Jason Schreier (thanks,GamesRadar+).
TheFriends Per Second podcastrecently had Schreier on to discuss the recent layoffs at Bungie. Schreier discussed Bungie’s current projectMarathon, and Sony’s push for more live-service titles within its portfolio.
Unsurprisingly, thesentiments he’s heard surrounding Marathon haven’t been positive. There’s beenvery little positive newscoming out of Bungie lately, in truth.
The Last Of Us Online Was An Expensive Mistake
As for Sony, Schreier revealed Naughty Dog’s cancellation of The Last of Us Online last year wasn’t “bloodless.” “Naughty Dog’s Factions [the multiplayer mode of The Last of Us] game was in development for something like four years, with a team in the hundreds,” Schreier said. “That is an expensive proposition for something that was a miss. And that project getting cancelled was not a bloodless endeavour. There were some heads rolling at Sony as a result of that one.”
The extent of these consequences is unknown, but Sony’s recent obsession with pivoting highly successful single-player studios to live-service titles is a questionable strategy. In addition to the cancelled The Last of Us Online, Insomniac Games also had a live-service Spider-Man title that never saw the light of day (The Great Web).
According to aprevious report by Schreier, Naughty Dog’s decision to cancel The Last of Us Online was partially motivated by advice given to the studio by Bungie.
It’s gratifying that Naughty Dog was able to recognise the studio would become beholden to a time-consuming live-service title in perpetuity, and managed to convince Sony to axe the project. We’ll still be getting the stellar single-player experiences the studio is known for as a result of that hard decision.
Sony still has several live-service projects on the way, including the hero shooterConcordwhich is set to release on August 23. Anecdotally, the game appears to be devoid of anticipation and excitement and failed to attract a sizeable number of players during its open beta. ‘Project H’, a rumoured Horizon MMO from NCSoft is also reportedly still in development.
