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Naughty Dog announced that The Last of Us Part II will not have a multiplayer mode, but that the studio is working on a multiplayer project independent of the new game (via WccfTech).
At E3 2018, Sony and Naughty Dog debuted gameplay footage of The Last of Us: Part II in all its grim glory. It was incredibly impressive, though a few were asking whether we’d be clobbering our friends and our foes in a multiplayer mode. The Last of Us had Factions, which was a multiplayer experience in which players sided with the Fireflies or the Hunters, and fought tooth and nail against each other to secure supplies for their survivors.
Factions was received very positively, so naturally, Naughty Dog was asked as to whether the sequel would get a similar mode alongside its single-player story. 'Factions is coming back,' The Last of Us: Part II co-director Anthony Newman confirmed at E3 2018. 'Multiplayer is coming back. We're not going to talk details yet about what form that takes, but we can confirm there will be multiplayer.'
Now, it has been revealed that The Last of Us: Part II won’t be getting multiplayer after all. Naughty Dog took to Twitter to explain its reasoning. ‘As we’ve stated, the single-player campaign is far and away the most ambitious project Naughty Dog has ever undertaken,’ it said. ‘Likewise, as development began on the evolution of our Factions mode from The Last of Us Part I, the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single-player campaign. Wanting to support both visions, we made the difficult choice that The Last of Us Part II would not include an online mode.’
But, Naughty Dog is still recruiting multiplayer gameplay programmers, as spotted by an eagle-eyed fan just yesterday. The developer clarified its plans for a multiplayer project, and that the project would link to the legacy of Factions in some tendency. ‘However, you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us Part II. When and where it will be realized is still to be determined,’ Naughty Dog’s post read.
‘But rest assured, we are as big a fan of Factions as the rest of our community and are excited to share more when it’s ready,’ it concluded. So, in short, players will enjoy The Last of Us Part II as a single-player experience and will look forward to the multiplayer, possibly survival-adventure project that the studio is cooking up.
The Last of Us: Part II will release on February 21 2020 for PlayStation 4.
