The Last of Us is such a behemoth of a video game franchise. It’s spanned across multiple generations now for the PlayStation brand. We also now have a live-action series based on the game through HBO. However, if you have been a fan of the franchise for very long, you might have recalled that developers were working on The Last of Us online, which was set to be a multiplayer game. That project never came to fruition. But we’re finding out that the director behind the game is now pursuing a new studio.
Naughty Dog had been working on a spin-off of sorts for The Last of Us. What we knew was that the game was set to be a multiplayer experience. From the sound of things, we would have a live service-type game where players would drop into a large map and participate in various objectives or extractions. It had gained quite a bit of interest among fans. However, the multiplayer title for The Last of Us was eventually scrapped.
Details are still scarce, but what we learned from this experience is that Naughty Dog just didn’t have the resources to continue supporting this project. They would have to either commit fully to The Last of Us online or scrap it to continue developing immersive single-player experiences. Today, we’re learning, thanks to Insider Gaming, that the game director, Vinit Agarwal, has since left Naughty Dog to start a new studio.
Vinit noted to their online followers that he doesn’t know what Naughty Dog is planning, but as for him, he will continue developing multiplayer games. That’s their current passion, and what we can likely expect from him with this new studio.
While it’s possible this might be a remote studio situation, we know that Vinit is currently moving to Japan. Likewise, they have expressed more information will be unveiled soon. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about this new studio and who might be attached to it in the coming weeks or months.
As for fans of The Last of Us, there was a new exciting update that surprised us yesterday. The Last of Us Part II Remastered received an update that introduced a new chronological approach to experiencing the storyline. However, it’s noted that this update is aimed at players who had already completed the original campaign.
Furthermore, we know that Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has decided to step away from the HBO live-action adaptation to fully focus on game development again. So it would seem there will be little to no involvement from this famed developer when season three goes into production.
