Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida discussed Naughty Dog’s canceled The Last of Us multiplayer game, Xbox’s launch of the game on PlayStation, and more in a recent interview. Yoshida, who retired from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) last month, said The Last of Us Online was “great” but that the studio couldn’t put the resources needed into a live-service game without jeopardizing its next project. Naughty Dog canceled The Last of Us multiplayer in December 2023, choosing instead to focus on its next single-player game.
The Last of Us Online is awesome
Yoshida spoke about the decision to abandon multiplayer development on the Sacred Symbols+ podcast (via Push Square), saying he “played the game and it was great.”
“The idea for The Last of Us Online came from Naughty Dog, and they really wanted to make it,” Yoshida said in a pay-per-view podcast released Wednesday. “But Bunge explained [to them] What does it take to make a real-time service game, and Naughty Dog realized, ‘Gee, we can’t do that! We wouldn’t be able to make Interstellar if we did that. So this is a sign of lack of foresight. “
Yoshida’s comments are consistent with reports from May 2023 that Destiny maker Bungie, a veteran live-service game developer, had evaluated The Last of Us Online and expressed concerns about the multiplayer project’s ability to keep players engaged for long periods of time.
After the review, Sony and Naughty Dog reduced the size of the team on the project. The report comes after Naughty Dog announced that the online game would need more time and confirmed that it was also working on a new single-player experience.
A few months later, in December 2023, Naughty Dog announced that The Last of Us Online had been cancelled. The studio said it was excited about the direction the game was taking, but decided it couldn’t continue to support the live-service game after launch without impacting the development of future single-player projects.
“As we moved into full production, our ambitions became clear. In order to publish and support The Last of Us Online, we would have to devote all of our studio resources to supporting post-launch content over the next few years, severely impacting the development of future single-player games. As a result, we had two paths in front of us: become a fully live-service game studio, or continue to focus on the single-player narrative games that define Naughty Dog’s legacy,” Naughty Dog said at the time.
In its announcement, the studio also confirmed that it is developing “more than one” new single-player game. One of them, finally revealed at The Game Awards 2024, is Galaxy: Prophets of Heresy. The sci-fi action-adventure game doesn’t yet have a release date, but the Sony-owned studio said it has been developing the game since 2020.
Yoshida talks about Xbox games coming to PS5 soon
Separately, Yoshida also talked about Microsoft’s decision to launch first-party games on PS5. The former Sony executive, who oversaw PlayStation’s first-party spending before leading its indie gaming initiatives, said (via VGC ) that Xbox games coming to PS5 is a “win for PlayStation users.”
“When you look at the installed base of Xbox hardware, it’s natural to understand what they’re doing, and it’s very simple,” Yoshida said. He said it’s “impossible” to maintain first-party development on a handful of platforms as game developers and studios want their games to reach a wider audience.
Xbox sales have been declining as Microsoft shifts to launching first-party games on rival platforms. After announcing some games for PS5 and Nintendo Switch in early 2024, the Xbox parent company continues to release more exclusive games on these consoles.
This year, the company has confirmed that first-party games Forza Horizon 5, Age of Mythology: Retelling, and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will soon launch on PS5. Bethesda’s “Indiana Jones and the Circle” launches as an Xbox and PC exclusive in December 2024 and is expected to be released on PS5 in 2025. The upcoming first-party game Doom: Dark Ages will be released simultaneously on PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PS5 on May 13, 2025.
Yoshida, an industry legend with 31 years of PlayStation experience, retired from SIE last month. The executive served as president of PlayStation Studios until 2019, when he was appointed to oversee Sony’s independent developer program.