A fan-made player-versus-player multiplayer mod for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 will not be released. Its creator, the modder Speclizer, said Sony Interactive Entertainment had asked that the project be kept from the public, according to reports from IGN and Video Games Chronicle.
Speclizer announced the decision in a social media post on September 13, Dexerto reported. The post said the mod had been in development since January and had been scheduled to launch in September.
Unfortunately I recently received a letter on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment requesting for the mod not to be released. Extremely sad that this never got to see the light of day but I hope you'll continue to follow me onto the next project, this time something of my own.
The project had been shown publicly well before the cancellation. Speclizer uploaded 25 minutes of gameplay footage in June, IGN reported, and Video Games Chronicle said the mod added its own perks, limited listening mechanics and new maps. Its development was partly funded through Patreon, a detail IGN said was unlikely to have helped the mod avoid attention.
Dexerto reported that the project had grown to support 4v4 matches, matchmaking, leaderboards and a map based on the game's Seraphite Forest area. Rock Paper Shotgun noted that the most recent development video arrived on August 22, in which Speclizer said the mod had gone "from a buggy 1v1 test to something that actually feels like a real multiplayer mode", with public matchmaking and a loadout system among the newly added features.
Naughty Dog's shelved multiplayer plans
The Last of Us Part 2 was originally planned to ship with an official multiplayer mode. In September 2019, Naughty Dog president and the game's director Neil Druckmann announced that the component had been dropped because the studio wanted to put all of its resources into making the single-player game as large as possible, Video Games Chronicle noted.
Naughty Dog then committed to a standalone multiplayer project. It released the first concept art for The Last of Us Online in June 2022, when Druckmann described the game as having its own story and a new cast of characters. The studio cancelled it in 2023, explaining that continuing would have required dedicating all of its resources to post-launch content for years and would have cost it the ability to make single-player games.
Former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive Shuhei Yoshida said after the cancellation that he had played The Last of Us Online and thought it was "great," according to IGN, which also reported that the game's director, Vinit Agarwal, says former colleagues still message him to call it "the best multiplayer game they've ever played."