Overview
- Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has said that most of Naughty Dog’s California staff were focused on a standalone Last of Us multiplayer project before it was canceled.
- Sources report the multiplayer effort was axed in late 2023 and that most personnel were then moved to a new game called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
- Journalists note Naughty Dog also spent years producing remakes and remasters, and they say that combination of projects helps explain why the studio has not shipped an original game since 2020.
- One outlet relayed Schreier’s claim that the canceled multiplayer program cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars, a figure presented as reported but not independently confirmed.
- The coverage matters for PlayStation’s first‑party slate because it reframes how Naughty Dog used staff time and raises the stakes on Intergalactic’s reported 2027 launch for the studio’s output and employee workloads.