It's been known for a while that Naughty Dog is working on a multiplayer spin-off to The Last of Us. But, for a long time, a lot of us only wondered about two things about the game: when it's coming out and what its name is going to be. Now, it appears there's a third question, is The Last of Us multiplayer spin-off coming to the PS4?
A curious job listing spotted by a curious Redditor on the Naughty Dog website answers this question.
The said listing states that the first-party PlayStation studio is looking for an associate multiplayer quality assurance tester with "working knowledge of PS4 and PS5 systems." This suggests that, at the very least, Naughty Dog is testing the game out as a cross-gen title.
We officially caught wind of The Last of Us multiplayer spin-off at last year's Summer Game Fest. At the time, Naughty Dog co-president, Neil Druckmann, promised audiences that it will show off more of the game later this year.
If we assume that Druckmann can keep to his word, we'll likely hear more about The Last of Us multiplayer in the next few months.
The Last of Us Standalone Multiplayer May Come To PS4 from GamingLeaksAndRumours
Druckmann will finally get a chance to "relax" after the season finale of HBO's The Last of Us. The live-action adaptation has been a tremendous success for HBO, even beating out House of the Dragon.
If we assume that work on the Season 2 won't start until at least after a while, Druckmann will have time to go around and talk more about The Last of Us multiplayer.
Admittedly, there are concerns about performance issues with The Last of Us multiplayer on the PS4. After all, Avalanche Software delayed Hogwarts Legacy on the PS4 and Xbox One to polish it up.
Several other studios have also had plenty of problems with getting games to run well on both last-gen and current-gen consoles. But, don't forget, Naughty Dog is a first-party Sony studio. If nothing else, it will get a lot more support, at least as far as optimization goes.
Besides, The Last of Us Part II on the PS4 and PS4 Pro holds up relatively well. Also, don't forget, last year's frontrunners for the GOTY, God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, came out splendidly on the PS4 too.
We're just hoping that Sony and Naughty Dog limit the live-service elements from The Last of Us multiplayer game. While we're aware that Sony has big plans for live-service games after it bought out Bungie last year, what happened with Marvel's Avengers should serve as a warning.
