Sony's Naughty Dog Delays Highly Anticipated 'The Last of Us' Multiplayer Game

Naughty Dog, a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment SONY, has announced the delay of the upcoming "The Last Of Us" multiplayer video game.

The American video game developer behind popular series such as "Crash Bandicoot," and "Uncharted" took to Twitter to announce the news.

See Also: 'The Last of Us' Series Shatters HBO Max Viewership Records, Bringing A Horde Of New Subscribers

"We know many of you have been looking forward to hearing more about our The Last of Us multiplayer game," Naughty Dog wrote. "We're incredibly proud of the job our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we've realized what is best for the game is to give it more time."

The video game developer added: "Our team will continue to work on the project, as well as our other games in development, including a brand new single-player experience; we look forward to sharing more soon. We're grateful to our fantastic community for your support - thank you for your passion for our games, it continues to drive us."

pic.twitter.com/DOeO8ZHSlh

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) May 26, 2023

The development of the multiplayer title has been underway for at least four years. Originally conceived as a supplementary mode for "The Last of Us: Part II," the critically acclaimed single-player game released in 2020, the creators' ambitions eventually led them to transform it into a standalone game.

It's worth noting the official announcement came after a Bloomberg story that reported that the game had been "scaled back after recent evaluation" and that "many of its developers had been moved to other projects."

Since its initial video game release in 2013, "The Last of Us" franchise has experienced tremendous success, with over 37 million units sold as of December, according to Sony. Over the years, it has evolved into a significant cultural phenomenon, further propelled by the highly acclaimed TV adaptation produced by HBO.

Read Next: Hollywood Writers' Strike Hits HBO's 'The Last of Us' Season 2

Image credits: courtesy of Rob Obsidian on Flickr and logo on Wikipedia