PlayStation Rejected A Pitch For A New Last Of Us Game, But For Good Reason

PlayStation has reportedly rejected a pitch for a new The Last of Us game, and to be fair, it was probably the best decision.

When The Last of Us was first released on the PlayStation 3 in 2013, towards the end of the console's life cycle, it instantly became one of the leading video game properties for Sony.

I can remember first experiencing the Naughty Dog classic via a pre-release playable demo included with physical copies of God of War: Ascension. It threw me straight into an intense Clicker infestation, and from that moment on, I fell for The Last of Us.

The Last of Us would garner critical success across the board from gamers and reviewers alike, which is why it was no surprise that it got a sequel in 2018 on the PlayStation 4 with The Last of Us Part II.

Since the original release of The Last of Us, over the years, we’ve seen remasters and a remake, but we’re still awaiting news from Naughty Dog regarding The Last of Us Part III.

Sure, despite not being officially announced, we all know that The Last of Us Part III is coming, but it’s most likely set to arrive after Naughty Dog’s other upcoming game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

We were close to getting a multiplayer game set in the world of The Last of Us, but that was sadly cancelled. However, we also nearly got another game inspired by the series, but unlike the multiplayer game that had begun its development, this one was seemingly rejected from the get-go.

As reported by The Game Post, Tencent reportedly wanted to develop a mobile The Last of Us game after Sony initially rejected the pitch for a Horizon mobile game.

Speaking of that rejected mobile game, Tencent then went on to make its own game that looks to be very suspiciously inspired by the Horizon series called Light of Motiram, which resulted in Sony’s wrath with claims of copyright infringement.

In a new court filing from Sony’s lawsuit against Tencent in relation to the copyright infringement claim, the studio that created the Horizon “clone”, pitched The Last of Us mobile game after the initial rejection.

During a meeting with Sony, the court filing details that a “grainy video” was presented for a game then called “Project Z”, which is believed to have been The Last of Us mobile spin-off. It will be interesting to see if that video gets leaked one day, because I’m certainly curious to see it.

If this mobile game were greenlit, it wouldn't have surprised me if it were similar to the strategy game, Clash of Clans, but inspired by the criminally underrated multiplayer mode, ‘Factions’, which was included in the 2013 release of The Last of Us, as well as the 2014 remaster.

As for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, it currently has no release date but is expected to be released on PlayStation 5 within a year or two.