Naughty Dog Has Reportedly Laid Off 25 Employees 1h255d The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Is ‘On Ice’

Most laid-off workers include quality assurance (QA) testers, who are all expected to continue working until the end of October. 4jw58

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Ketan Pratap | Updated: 4 October 2023 14:21 IST

Naughty Dog Has Reportedly Laid Off 25 Employees, The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Is ‘On Ice’

Photo Credit: Naughty Dog 726z2f

The Last of Us multiplayer game is presumably set in San Francisco

Highlights

Affected contract workers reportedly won’t be receiving any severance
The remaining employees are being ‘pressured’ to keep the layoffs quiet
The Last of Us multiplayer game scaled down on development in May

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PlayStation studio is cutting off at least 25 developers, with the most affected being quality assurance (QA) testers, whose contracts have been shortened. Affected workers are expected to continue working until the end of October, and they allegedly won't be receiving any severance payments. Turns out, the full-time staff — last recorded headcount being 400+ in July — are not being laid off, with employees in general being ‘pressured' to keep the news internal.

While 2023 has been an incredible year for games, the people making them have been suffering for some time now. Massive layoffs, high-ranking executives leaving, and Neil Druckmann claiming that the team has the luxury of creating what it's ionate about, rather than chasing trends.

report from May revealed that development on the game had been scaled back and required more time to cook, as a means to ‘reassess its quality and long-term viability.' As part of the process, several developers were reallocated to other projects and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) invited Halo and Destiny creator Bungie to evaluate the zombie-killing multiplayer experience. At the end of the testing, Bungie was unimpressed, raising concerns about the project's ability to maintain an online player base for long periods, thereby leading to the internal shake-up. For now, though, the San Francisco-set spin-off isn't cancelled.

It is worth mentioning that the TLOU multiplayer experience would also be the first to not include Druckmann as a lead writer or director. By the end of 2023, he might also be the only one left to lead Naughty Dog, given co-President Evan Wells has chosen to retire after a 25-year stint at the company. Its latest release was in March — the PC port of performance issues. Then there's also an untitled ‘brand-new single-player' game that the studio has got cooking, which many are hoping is The Last of Us Part III. An Uncharted sequel is unlikely since Druckmann already confirmed that the team is moving on from that franchise.

What are the most exciting titles that gamers can look forward to in 2023? We discuss some of our favourites on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Last of Us 425oe

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 4 (PS4)

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series The Last of Us

PEGI Rating 18+

More Sony Games

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