The Last of Us Online Reportedly Cost Naughty Dog Hundreds of Millions and Delayed Intergalactic
We could have already been playing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet by now, or at least been much closer to its release, had Naughty Dog not spent years working on The Last of Us Online.
Remember Factions? The multiplayer project for The Last of Us that was canceled may have seriously hurt the development of the new IP.
The information comes from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who said that most of the team was working on The Last of Us Online rather than Intergalactic until the it was canceled.
The Last of Us Online Reportedly Affected Intergalactic’s Development
In his latest video, Schreier talks about Sony’s problems with live-service games and how badly that period went, even though the company still wants to make this strategy work.
It is worth remembering that several projects of this kind were canceled after Sony had previously planned to release 12 online multiplayer games by the end of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Only Helldivers 2 has been a success for the company. The other projects either have not been released yet or were canceled before launch. The Last of Us Factions was one of those canceled projects.
He said, “A lot of people at Naughty Dog were working on that game. I think there’s a belief out there that it was just kind of a side project while most people were working on Intergalactic. No, the opposite is true. Intergalactic did not have the majority of stuff until after Last of Us Online was cancelled.”
“And then most people on the studio came over to work on Intergalactic. Many people in the studio, I would say the majority of the studio was working on either Last of Us Online or the remasters,” he added.
Finally, he says the development of The Last of Us Factions cost “hundreds of millions” to Naughty Dog before it was canceled.
Without the time and staff spent on The Last of Us Online, Intergalactic could have been much further into development, and we might even be playing Naughty Dog’s new IP by now.
In other news, Horizon live-service game “Hunters Gathering” is not canceled for now, but is reportedly being rebooted after negative playtest feedback.
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