It's easy to forget that Naughty Dog is actively working on a new The Last of Us game. The multiplayer off-shoot of the award-winning narrative-driven franchise was first confirmed at the Summer Game Fest last year and fans have been dying to hear more about the game in the months since. Even if the project is still nowhere near completion, Naughty Dog is now confident enough to drop a new teaser image and reveal a bit more details about the game.
Naughty Dog co-president, Neil Druckmann, recently gave us a glimpse at just the second official image of the game which shows a pair of survivors en route to an abandoned cruise ship. We can only presume that they're off to scavenge for much-needed materials.
More importantly, Druckmann promises that fans can expect "some fun surprises" as well as more details about "the future of [The Last of Us]" as well as the multiplayer title. Finally, the fan-favorite game developer confirms that the development of Last of Us multiplayer game is going well, and while it's a "fresh, new experience", it will be "rooted in Naughty Dog's passion for delivering incredible stories, characters, and gameplay."
TLDR; the still-untitled The Last of Us multiplayer will be a more expansive and narrative-driven version of Factions, the online multiplayer mode for The Last of Us.
Fans won't be totally surprised by Druckmann's announcement. The franchise will celebrate its 10th birthday on June 14, which is also a reminder that we're all getting up there in age now.
Kidding aside, The Last of Us fans have been eating well these past few years. After getting The Last of Us Part 2, which was the most GOTY'ed game of all time before Elden Ring took away the crown, Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Part 1, a remake of the original title, on the PlayStation 5 in September. The same game is headed to the PC in March, just in time for the penultimate episode of HBO's The Last of Us.
If we were to guess, Druckmann will likely confirm the launch date of the second season of HBO's expensive live-action adaptation in June as well as the release date for the upcoming multiplayer game.
Unfortunately, all of this work on The Last of Us has given Naughty Dog little time to work on Uncharted. The last we heard, Sony is rebooting Uncharted with a different developer at the helm.
