The Last of Us' cancelled multiplayer spin-off was 80% complete, director says

The cancelled multiplayer The Last of Us game was reportedly nearing completion when it was scrapped in late 2023, with its director being notified of its cancellation just 24 hours before the public.

The details:

• Back in December 2023, it was announced that Naughty Dog’s multiplayer-only spin-off of The Last of Us was cancelled after it reviewed that the project would take away resources from the development of future single-player games due to its live service structure.
• Speaking on Lance E. Lee's LelPodcast, the project’s former director, Vinit Agarwal, discussed its cancellation, revealing that Sony pulled the plug on its development rather late after investing heavily. He stated that the game was "doing really, really well internally," but that as spending began to decline, Sony was forced to cancel the project.
• Ultimately, the development team, including Agarwal, was notified that the game was scrapped just a day before it was publicly announced. "It was soul-crushing," he said. “To find out it was getting cancelled 24 hours before it was announced to the public, that's how I found out the game was being cancelled. It was just unfortunate, and they had to do that because they have to control the messaging."