The wait for The Last of Us Part 2 multiplayer will be worth it, says Druckmann

By Aaron Mamiit September 27, 2020

Naughty Dog has no updates yet for the multiplayer mode of The Last of Us Part 2, but according to the studio’s vice president Neil Druckmann, it will be worth the wait.

In The Last of Us Day, the renamed annual celebration of everything The Last of Us, Naughty Dog revealed a free new dynamic theme for the PlayStation 4, merchandise, and even a new board game. Players, however, were expecting information on The Last of Us Part 2 multiplayer, but the event ended without any announcements.

Druckmann, however, in a tweet expressing gratitude to The Last of Us fans, hinted at The Last of Us Part 2‘s highly anticipated multiplayer mode.

Thank you to all the wonderful fans for an incredible #TheLastofUsDay ! Your positivity and love is incredibly inspiring. Oh… and about that other thing… be patient. It’ll be worth it. ❤️

— Dr. Uckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) September 27, 2020

As players finished the controversial story of The Last of Us Part 2, the wait started for its version of Factions, which is the multiplayer mode of The Last of Us. Since Naughty Dog said about a year ago that The Last of Us Part 2 will not include an online mode upon release, speculation has been rampant on the kind of multiplayer gameplay that will be rolled out for the game.

The Last of Us Part 2 controversy

The Last of Us Part 2 set a new record as the fastest-selling first-party PlayStation 4 exclusive ever when it launched in June, with 4 million copies sold in its first three days. However, the game’s controversial story resulted in review bombing and death threats.

Naughty Dog has since re-introduced the Grounded difficulty setting, as well as added a Permadeath mode, to The Last of Us Part 2, while working with HBO on a TV show adaptation of the first game’s story.

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Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

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

Key art for The Last of Us Part II Remastered

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

Gaming

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.

Computing

This might be why The Last of Us has terrible stuttering on PC

Joel looks at Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2.

The Last of Us on PC has launched in a dire state. Although I haven't experienced as many issues as some players are reporting, the consensus is clear: the game is buggy, poorly optimized, and underbaked. It's currently sitting with a Mostly Negative review status on Steam, which is typically reserved for the most broken games, like Battlefield 2042.

Consider yourself warned if you want to jump into Joel and Ellie's story on PC, especially if you just finished off the excellent HBO series. For players who already have the game, there's a particular issue you should be aware of that relates to Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), as well as demands on your system that go far beyond the recommended specs.
A possible source of stutter