Skip to main content

Naughty Dog confirms The Last of Us Part II Remastered following leak

Naughty Dog officially announced and released the first trailer for a remaster of 2020’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us Part II. The developer was forced to announce The Last of Us Remastered Part II Remastered a bit early after it leaked Friday afternoon. Thankfully, the wait for the remaster won’t be long, as it’s coming to the PlayStation 5 in two months.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered - Announce Trailer | PS5 Games

The Last of Us Part II Remastered overhauls the beautiful PS4 game for the PS5 with visual enhancements and new content. That includes a 4K Fidelity mode, a Performance Mode that upscales to 40, an Unlocked Framerate mode for VRR TVs, improved loading times, and more. Regarding new content, its offerings already seem much more thorough than The Last of Us Part I’s.

There’s a roguelike survival mode called No Return, where players can choose a character to play and then attempt to survive encounter after increasingly difficult encounter. A blog post from Naughty Dog teases that players can customize runs, unlock characters and costumes, and compete for the top spot on a Daily Run global leaderboard in this mode.

For those more interested in the game development side of things, Lost Levels gives us a look at three levels that were cut from the final game, and new developer commentary enables the developers to explain the thought and development behind certain moments. Outside of that, there are new accessibility features like speech-to-vibrations, added character and weapon skins, and Guitar Free Play and Speedrun modes that support what their titles suggest.

Key art for The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Sony Interactive Entertainment

The Last of Us Part II Remastered will be one of the first AAA launches of 2024, as it comes to PS5 on January 19. A PC port does not appear to be in the cards at this time. Those who already own The Last of Us Part II on PS5 can upgrade to the game for just $10.

Editors' Recommendations

Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
The Last of Us Online’s cancellation is the right move for Naughty Dog
The second piece of The Last of Us multiplayer concept art shows two players walking toward a beached yacht.

After a long period of silence on the project, and numerous reports of a beleaguered and troubled development, Naughty Dog has finally pulled the plug on its The Last of Us online multiplayer project. It was originally planned as an online mode paired with The Last of Us Part II, much like Factions accompanied the first game. But at some point, the scope and direction of the mode was changed and it was decided that it would be a standalone title. Over three years later, with nothing but concept art shown from the game, it has b4een officially scrapped.

While that may come as a disappointment to Naughty Dog fans looking forward to its take on a live-service game set in The Last of Us universe, its cancellation is a necessity for the company. It's a hard decision that will allow the studio to continue doing what it does best rather than giving in to what's trendy.
Cutting losses
Naughty Dog's official statement on why it decided to halt production on this project paints a very clear picture: the studio wanted to put the same amount of time, care, and ambition into every component of The Last of Us Online as it would a single-player title. After evolving into a full live-service effort, upholding that level of quality would have become the studio's sole focus. Seeing the road it was about to embark on, Naughty Dog had to choose between becoming a studio that only made The Last of Us Online, or one that could continue to create single-player experiences that have helped define PlayStation's modern image. It was both a hard decision and an obvious choice.

Read more
Naughty Dog devs suffer layoffs, reportedly impacting Last of Us multiplayer spinoff
Ellie looking concerned.

A new report revealed that Naughty Dog has ended several contracts it had with developers early, laying off around 25 developers. This had a negative impact on The Last of Us multiplayer game but, more importantly, is chillingly just the latest batch of layoffs in a rough couple of months for the video game industry.
These contracted developers were informed that their contracts were ending prematurely at the end of October and that they'd get no severance afterward, according to the report at Kotaku. Reportedly, most of these layoffs at Naughty Dog, PlayStation's darling studio that employs over 400 developers, come from the quality assurance, art, and production teams. According to Kotaku, Naughty Dog asked its developers to keep quiet about it. That didn't happen, though, with developers telling Kotaku not only about the layoffs but that the multiplayer The Last of Us game "while not completely canceled, is basically on ice at this point."
Concept art for Naughty Dog's Last of Us multiplayer title. Naughty Dog
These layoffs are unfortunate but sadly not uncommon for the game industry. Throughout the last few weeks, studios like Ubisoft, Creative Assembly, Ascendant Studios, and Epic Games have all laid off people. Epic, in particular, cut a whopping 16% of its workforce despite the fact that Fortnite is one of the most popular video games. Then, there are studios like Saints Row's Volition, support studio Puny Human, and Boomerang X's Dang are closing entirely.
Although 2023 has been a year full of fantastic games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Street Fighter 6, and Baldur's Gate 3, it's unfortunate that it has been so rough for the developers who actually make the games in this gigantic industry. It's clear something needs to change.

Read more
Naughty Dog confirms its working on a new single-player game in odd apology post
Abby screaming in The Last of Us Part II

The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has confirmed that it's working on a new single-player game in a fairly odd manner. The news came in the middle of an apologetic post explaining why the studio didn't show its upcoming Last of Us multiplayer project during this week's PlayStation Showcase.

https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/1662166716892479488

Read more