Naughty Dog's live-service drama ahead of PS5 cancellation 'helpful'

The Last of Us' PS5 multiplayer game underwent a Bungie review. While people suggested that Naughty Dog wasn't happy with the review, new reports say otherwise.

Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Published 02 Aug 2024

If you followed the PlayStation Studios news recently, you'll know that The Last of Us' PS5 live-service multiplayer project underwent a Bungie review from the 'Centre of Live-Service Excellence.' Eventually, the The Last of Us multiplayer was canceled — but, counter to common thought on the topic, developer Naughty Dog was reasonably happy with the result of Bungie's advice.

The Last of Us multiplayer has a 'helpful' Bungie review

After news of Bungie's review of TLOU multiplayer caused a development pause, people assumed that the golden child of PlayStation Studios wouldn't have been happy with Bungie stepping in. However, Insider Jason Schreier posted on X:

"Bungie gave Naughty Dog feedback that Naughty Dog found extremely helpful when making what was likely a very smart decision to not go all in on a service game."

Schreier followed up by stating; "People lamenting this cancellation should look at the history of single-player studios pivoting to make service games such as Anthem, Suicide Squad, Marvel's Avengers, Redfall, and so on."

Despite Bungie's woes with management and some misses when making Destiny, there is (or was before the layoffs) plenty of experience at making sticky online games. Given what we know about Sony's initial 12-game live-service plan for PS5 and beyond falling apart, there is no doubt that if Bungie recommended staying away from that style of game design it was probably wise.

From what we know of the project, The Last of Us 'Factions' seemed set to broaden the scope of TLOU's world by taking place in San Francisco. It seemed incredibly ambitious too, with everyone presuming that a high-quality narrative would unfold as you played. I've always been curious about what the game could have been because the original PS3 game's multiplayer was, surprisingly, superb.

But, Schreier is right here — if you look at our PlayStation Chart you'll see that very few of the top live-service games are made by traditionally single-player studios. The closest is probably Rockstar with Grand Theft Auto V. Even then, it has a huge single-player component and Rockstar's second attempt with Red Dead Redemption 2 was spectacularly unimpressive.

If Naughty Dog wanted to succeed in live service, The Last of Us Factions would have had to buck a whole load of trends to make it amongst the best multiplayer games on PS5. But what do you think? Are you glad it was canceled? Surprised that Bungie's help was appreciated? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor-in-Chief Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 games like The Witcher IV, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II using experience from years of PlayStation gaming. He also covers PS Plus news and some of the best PS5 games — Uncharted, God of War, and The Last of Us — before an evening swim.