Former the last of us multiplayer director still hearing praise for ‘amazing’ unfinished game
Seattle, WA – Just over a year after Sony pulled the plug on The Last of Us Online, the project’s former director, Vinit Agarwal, is still fielding messages from colleagues who remain convinced the multiplayer experience was a lost masterpiece.
‘It was going to be the best’: colleagues still rave about unreleased title
Agarwal, speaking candidly in a recent podcast interview, revealed that countless former colleagues continue to reach out, insisting that the ambitious multiplayer game – ultimately cancelled due to shifting priorities at Sony – was “the best multiplayer game they’ve ever played.” The revelation, detailed on Twitter over the weekend, highlights the lingering disappointment surrounding the project’s demise and underscores the high hopes invested in its development.
“It’s wild how many of my ex-colleagues still message me today saying how amazing TLOU Online was going to be – still the best multiplayer game they’ve ever played,” Agarwal tweeted. “Never going to let what I work on not see the light of day again. Thank you all for your support and confidence!”
The cancellation, announced in December 2023, stemmed from a combination of factors. Sony’s decision to pivot resources towards post-launch content for existing titles, particularly Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, effectively strangled The Last of Us Online in its crib. Agarwal described the situation as “devastating,” noting he only learned of the cancellation 24 hours before Sony publicly announced it – a situation he found deeply frustrating.
A vision of desperation
Agarwal outlined his initial design vision for the game, describing a deeply immersive experience rooted in the bleak, survivalist world of The Last of Us. “I wanted people to get that feeling,” he explained. “It takes place in The Last of Us universe. It was a multiplayer game set in the same universe as The Last of Us. The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic world where people potentially hunt each other for food, for a little bit of supplies. And it’s kind of like what those guys did to me, where they rob me for basically a McDonald’s meal.”
He envisioned a tense, scavenging-focused gameplay loop, mirroring the desperate struggle for survival that defined the original game. Players would engage in a brutal, almost primal conflict, driven by a desperate need for resources, with the potential for horrific acts of violence. “And so that sense of desperation that comes out of that, and what you’re willing to do when you’re desperate, and the dehumanizing element of it where you’re gonna almost hunt someone like an animal for the scraps. And when they chase you, they’re out for blood. They will chase you to the end of the world to get that food,” Agarwal elaborated.
The game’s core mechanic centered around replicating the feeling of being hunted – a sudden, terrifying ambush followed by a desperate flight for survival. He recalled a particularly impactful early prototype moment: “I remember this experience, I was playing a really early version of the game, and someone was shooting at me and I hid behind a table. And they’re looking for me and they didn’t see me, and they left the room. I reloaded my gun and they hear me reloading my gun, and they come back into the room and then I’m like, st, and I jump out the window and they’re chasing me and I’m running through the corridors and stuff like that and I duck in some grass, because it’s an overgrown world because it’s 25 years in the future. And I’m like in the grass hiding and they’re looking for me, and they’re like walking right next to the grass and they can’t see me.”
For Agarwal, the project represented a deeply personal endeavor – a chance to explore the darker, more unsettling aspects of the Last of Us universe. “And it felt so authentically like that moment. I was like, ‘Wow, this is powerful.’ It was therapy for me.”
Despite significant progress, the game ultimately succumbed to industry pressures and Sony’s strategic shift. Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida previously indicated that feedback from Bungie, a now-independent studio, played a crucial role in persuading Naughty Dog to abandon the project, fearing the resources required to deliver a live service title would preclude the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Now, with HBO’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us series dominating television screens, the shadow of what could have been – a truly unique and terrifying multiplayer experience – lingers large.