Naughty Dog, developer of the upcoming Last of Us Part 2, provided an update today about their future plans for multiplayer. According to a Tweet from the company, The Last of Us Part 2 will not contain a multiplayer mode, but the developer has confirmed work on a multiplayer-only title.
Despite its reputation as a developer of single-player only experiences, Naughty Dog has included multiplayer modes in many of its flagship titles. Naughty Dog games feature a signature combat style that works well in multiplayer, and the modes usually attract a lot of players. In fact, the developers just announced shutting down the PS3 servers for the first Last of Us game earlier this month.
But according to comments from lead The Last of Us Part 2 game designer Emilia Schatz earlier today, the game just became too ambitious for the team to devote resources to multiplayer. Fans of the first game's multiplayer mode, however, need not despair. According to today's Twitter announcement, Naughty Dog has a team working exclusively on a separate multiplayer-only experience.
While the announcement doesn't contain a lot of specifics, it makes mention of Factions directly. Factions served as the name for the multiplayer mode in the first The Last of Us game, a mode fans really enjoyed. Naughty Dog's mention of Factions might imply that this new multiplayer project will take inspiration from that mode. The Tweet also confirms the reason for the missing multiplayer: the ambitious scope of the project. This make sense as The Last of Us Part 2 reportedly requires multiple Blu-ray discs.
This announcement might come as a let-down for fans who anticipated a follow-up to Factions, but the reveal of a new multiplayer-focused game from Naughty Dog should make the news easier to take. Naughty Dog has a reputation for a unique level of polish in its projects and all of its previous multiplayer modes were well-received by fans despite their not having the full focus of the development teams. With that kind of talent laser-focused on a multiplayer experience, this future project has a lot of potential. On top of that, Naughty Dog recently brought on new multiplayer developers.
The announcement didn't provide any information about when fans can expect more news on this future project, but that makes sense. The team still needs to put the finishing touches on The Last of Us Part 2 before its release in February. Until then, fans will have a meaty new experience to enjoy and can at least rest easy knowing that the team behind the game didn't have the distraction of developing a multiplayer mode.