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Naughty Dog issues statement on no Last of Us Part 2 multiplayer

The Last of Us Part 2 looks to be a purely single player experience, with Naughty Dog issuing a statement regarding the missing Factions multiplayer.

Ozzie Mejia

September 26, 2019 8:25 PM

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Thursday was a momentous day for developer Naughty Dog. The house that brought the gaming world the Uncharted series opened their doors for various outlets (including Shacknews) to go hands-on with The Last of Us Part II for the first time. But one thing that was noticeable was that there was no sign of online play or multiplayer. Naughty Dog has since confirmed that The Last of Us Part II will not include online play or a multiplayer component and issued a statement late Thursday regarding this decision.

An update regarding multiplayer: pic.twitter.com/CUd98LgJGC

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) September 27, 2019

"We wanted to address multiplayer in The Last of Us Part II," reads the statement on the Naughty Dog Twitter account. "As we've stated, the single player campaign is far and away the most ambitious project Naughty Dog has ever undertaken. 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.

"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. 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."

The statement is in reference to the Factions multiplayer mode from the original Last of Us. At the time considered to be a throwaway multiplayer add-on, Factions found its own devoted audience, one that expressed disappointment that the game mode would not make the trip to the sequel.

However, this latest statement from Naughty Dog does seem to indicate that Last of Us multiplayer will live on in some fashion. Whether it will be released as a standalone spin-off or a DLC add-on will ultimately remain to be seen.

In the meantime, The Last of Us Part II is looking to be the massively ambitious product that Naughty Dog is advertising. To learn more about it, be sure to read up on Shacknews' full hands-on preview.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?