The Last of Us multiplayer is "on ice" but "not completely cancelled"

The Last of Us, without question, is a diamond amongst the Naughty Dog catalogue, and that’s saying something considering that this is the same studio that brought us the likes of Uncharted, Jak and Daxter, as well as the original Crash Bandicoot in 1996.

When the original The Last of Us was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013 towards the end of the PS3’s life cycle, it pushed the system to its absolute limits. In truth, it would be fair to say that the PS3 had no right to produce a game to this level which just shows the pure wizardry of Naughty Dog.

Check out The Last of Us Part I trailer below!

The Last of Us (2013) also had a fantastic multiplayer mode called ‘Factions’ which blended the survival elements of the single-player game with a competitive third-person shooter. ‘Factions’ would then make its way onto the PS4 in 2014 with The Last of Us Remastered.

Unfortunately, despite showing a lot of promise and being a fantastic multiplayer mode, ‘Factions’ struggled to take off. Granted, you can still find an online match quite easily in the PS4 version, but there have been concerns as of late that servers might eventually shutdown, seeing as how Naughty Dog is working on a brand new standalone multiplayer release.

That's surely consolation to those worried about the future of 'Factions' but in May 2023, Naughty Dog announced that while it was still working on the standalone multiplayer game, its development was delayed. At the time though, insiders claimed that the picture was, in fact, far bleaker than that. An internal review by fellow studio Bungie reportedly raised concerns over the longevity of the game, leading to the canning of its planned reveal earlier this summer. Some even claimed the game has been completely cancelled.

However, that might not be the case. IGN reports that The Last of Us multiplayer game is “on ice” but has not been “completely cancelled.” There's hope yet but sadly, on the flipside of that news, it’s also been reported that Naughty Dog has allegedly laid off at least 25 of its developers, most of whom are said to be quality assurance contractors.

We'll be keeping an eye on further developments.