Yeah its a shame for people excited for it. Going from the recent The Days Before scam, there is genuine interest in a Zombie MMO. But really it would've sucked up a lot of ND's resources. And that could've gone towards making the TLOU 3, Uncharted (next) or their new IP. That and the recent downturn of live service games like Destiny, its a big risk in turning ND into a multiplayer dev.

Feels like Sony is trying to correct course away from live service as watching games like Destiny and Bungie flounder really made them reconsider their plans for the future development and teams.

At the very least I can see them being able to (not necessarily do) repurpose their work from TloU Online, either into a part of TLoU3 or maybe even a Lost Legacy style side story set in San francisco. 

That said, I feel like Factions isn't what they'll lean into, but rather their new roguelike mode, which is probably closer to what TloU Online was going to be.

I don't think there was ever a risk of ND being a MP dev. They've been doing MP for a long time but their narrative SP games are what the team culture pushes. 

Having an existing live-service title I think would be a boon for any dev to have alongside what they are working on. But, on the other hand, they can now focus on what they excel at. 

Speculation still points towards TloU3, a new IP and helping with a new UC, which is all good news!

I mean they said it themselves-

"To release and support The Last of Us Online we'd have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog's heritage."

They would basically need to dedicate most (if not all) of their whole resources to TLOU Online and keep it running. Other projects would need to be put on the side lines. What I think happened is that they went well in over their heads with the scope and didn't know what they were getting themselves into.

Live service games need a lot of attention to keep players going and a lot of resource dedicated towards that. We basically see it with Activision Blizzard, Rockstar, Bungie and their games like CoD Warzone, World of Warcraft, GTA Online and Destiny requiring hundreds to thousands of developers working on it constantly year in year out. To churn out new content every few months for engagement. For a developer who hasn't had any experience in that and jump in wasn't a very good idea to be blunt and thats putting it lightly. And they should've stuck to what they were good at which is make brilliant generation defining single player games and perhaps maybe have a stab a multiplayer game on the side.

Years wasted. Live and learn I guess. Hopefully we'll get at least one new ND game to play this generation xP

My intention is not to act like ND are lying. I don't think this would've happened but if they say it was then sure ok.

It def seems like they bit more than they can chew and I think that's fine. Devs should be given the opportunity to explore new avenues: that's how they can grow into something more than they are. Kind of reminds me of Aspyr and the KOTOR remake: too bad they couldn't make it a reality. 

Wow, previously I mentioned how I was able to score PS+ subscription at the pre-price hike. I finally used the codes and turned it it was just credit. After talking with the seller i decided ot just keep it cause I need the credit anyways.

Then Sony decided to do 30% off special but I was in 2 minds cause Essential wasn't discounted, and only a small bump to Extra. But thankfully, Essential got a discount which is cheaper than the previous price 12 month price. Easy subscribe for me!

Really glad. Lego 2K with my kid will be more than worth the price lol

It's disappointing that we may never see TLOU Online, but Naughty Dog may reuse some assets for a multiplayer mode in Part 3.

We also got confirmation about two single player games in development. I believe Neil confirmed that a project went into full development while Naughty Dog was working on TLOU Online. The best case scenario for ND in terms of release cadence, is one project in 2026, and the other in 2028.

I'd pump the brakes on that one.

Sony has a high threshold for quality and more than likely cancelled a few disappointing projects. I mean, as much as Bungie has floundered, Marathon is still one of the more promising projects for their live service push. Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games wanted to do a multiplayer game before Jim Ryan made the statement of 12 live service games by 2026. 

Do you remember the reports about Sony, not PlayStation, being interested in acquiring Leyou Technologies? GaaS is an area that Sony leadership, as well as PlayStation leadership, want to break into. Whoever replaces Jim Ryan is going to have that same philosophy. 

I don't think Sony is going to force their single player developers to develop multiplayer games for their GaaS push. But their going to continue to invest into live service like the NCSoft partnership, or via acquisition like Bungie, Firewalk, Firesprite and Haven. 

2026 may be optimistic too. TLOU Part II started development in 2014 and took 6 years to make with 2100 people total working on the game with notorious crunch, and for a PS4 game. 

I can't imagine how long it'll take for a PS5 only game along with changes at the studio to where crunch won't be necessary. Hopefully. May be even more people required. 

From what I understand of Naughty Dog's development, most of those people only worked on it the last 2-3 years. Most of them were working on Uncharted 4 + Uncharted TLL beforehand. And a lot of them probably moved onto TLOU Online, and then they got moved to whatever is next in full production. 

There was a Naughty Dog dev that said most development time (regardless of new IP or sequel) is with a small team that is prototyping and doing concept work stuff. 

I think that's a big reason why Insomniac is able to put out games so quick. You have 3 sets of directors each working on their project, and then you move everyone around as needed. Spider-Man 2 probably took 5 years of development overall, but 80% of the people that worked on it also worked on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man Miles Morales. And similarly for Wolverine.

If Druckmann + Kurt Margenau started work on something besides TLOU Online, I think 2026 is pretty realistic. Maybe even late 2025 if things go well. 

Horizon Forbidden West apparently has around 3400 people

Spider-Man Miles Morales around 2000

God of War Ragnarok: 2600 people

Assuming that Matthew Gallant, Shaun Escayg are directing something again, something like 2028-2029 seems reasonable.