This article was updated by Andrea Trama on April 9, 2026, to include Neil Druckmann's tease for TLoU 3 and a new Uncharted rumor. It was first published on April 2.
A standalone multiplayer game developed by Naughty Dog and set in The Last of Us universe was apparently 80% completed when the studio made the decision to cancel the project in 2023. Work on The Last of Us Online began alongside the development of The Last of Us Part 2, as Naughty Dog was aiming to expand on the multiplayer mode featured in the original 2013 title, which was known as Factions. Unfortunately, the project became too ambitious for the studio and was ultimately canned after nearly seven years in development.
Although Naughty Dog is best-known for creating some of PlayStation's most beloved single-player, narrative-driven experiences, such as The Last of Us and Uncharted, it's also found success over the years with its multiplayer ventures. Not only did numerous Uncharted games include very popular online multiplayer modes, but the original Last of Us from 2013 also shipped with an online component known as Factions. Support for the mode on PlayStation 3 ended in 2019 when the game's servers were...
