Former Director Reveals 'The Last of Us Online' Was Near Completion Before Cancellation

Vinit Agarwal, former game director at Naughty Dog, revealed that 'The Last of Us Online' was about 80% complete when the project was canceled in late 2023.

Agarwal expressed his disappointment, stating, "That was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on that game, and it was soul-crushing." He learned of the cancellation just 24 hours before it was publicly announced.

The decision to cancel the multiplayer spinoff was influenced by the need to prioritize another project directed by Neil Druckmann, the company's president. Agarwal noted, "They had to pick the game that was kind of the bread and butter of the studio rather than this experimental game that I was working on."

Agarwal also discussed Sony's live-service initiative, which began around 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the increased demand for multiplayer experiences. However, as global quarantine measures eased and demand declined, the company reduced its investment in live-service games.

In 2022, Sony announced plans to launch over 10 live-service games by March 2026. However, by late 2023, the company had delayed six of these projects, and in early 2025, it canceled two unannounced live-service games from Bluepoint Games and Bend Studio.

Following the cancellation of 'The Last of Us Online,' Agarwal left Naughty Dog and moved to Japan to start a new game studio.