Overview
- Former game director Vinit Agarwal says the standalone multiplayer spinoff reached roughly 80% completion after about seven years of work and was testing well inside Naughty Dog.
- Naughty Dog canceled the project in December 2023, saying years of post‑launch support would drain staff and slow future single‑player games.
- Agarwal says leadership chose to back Neil Druckmann’s next single‑player title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet for PS5, over sustaining a live‑service release.
- He recalls learning of the cancellation only 24 hours before it was announced, calling the outcome “soul‑crushing,” and later left the studio in January 2025 to start a new team in Japan.
- He links the project’s rise and fall to Sony’s COVID‑era push into online games and the later pullback as players returned to normal routines and companies cut or delayed live‑service plans.