Reporting from Kotaku said Naughty Dog’s standalone multiplayer set in The Last of Us was not fully canceled but had been put “on ice,” raising fresh doubts about whether the project will reach release.
Kotaku’s story said the studio recently cut several contract roles tied to the project. At least 25 developers working in quality assurance testing were affected, the report added, while full-time staff remained in place for now. The layoffs left the multiplayer effort under close review inside the studio.
Earlier reporting by Bloomberg said Sony had shifted resources away from the multiplayer title after an internal review produced mixed results. That move, combined with the more recent contract cuts, narrowed the project’s path forward.
The standalone multiplayer was at one point described as one of Naughty Dog’s most ambitious undertakings. Studio leadership, including Neil Druckmann, previously confirmed the team was developing a separate multiplayer game set in the same universe; Druckmann has discussed the project in interviews and public comments—see Naughty Dog’s announcement coverage at consolepcgaming.com for more background.
News of these cuts arrived amid a larger trend of staffing reductions across the industry. Other studios, including 343 Industries, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Epic Games, have also reported job losses in recent months. Those broader shifts have increased scrutiny on costly, long-term projects such as Naughty Dog’s multiplayer effort.
At this point the multiplayer project remained in limbo. The Kotaku report stopped short of calling the game canceled, but the combination of resource reallocation, internal review, and contract layoffs left the project’s future unclear.
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