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Naughty Dog is reportedly laying off contract developers as well as putting its The Last of Us multiplayer game on hold.
According to Kotaku, Naughty Dog has cut at least 25 developers, the majority of which are reportedly in the quality assurance department. However, it seems like full-time developers were not impacted by the downsizing.
The contractors are reportedly expected to work through October when their contracts end and will not be receiving any sort of severance. Additionally, the affected developers are reportedly being pressured to keep the news of these layoffs under wraps. Furthermore, Kotaku reports that the upcoming multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe is “basically on ice at this point” but not entirely canceled.
Earlier this year, a report came out that Sony had deprioritized the multiplayer game and decided to put its resources elsewhere. Bungie, now a first-party Sony studio, reportedly gave the game a negative internal review. Naughty Dog seemingly responded to the report, saying that it needed more time to work on the game and wasn’t ready to show more just yet. For the Last of Us Day on September 25 this year, the studio even stated that fans shouldn’t expect any new game and TV show announcements or reveals.
2023 has had major layoffs in the video game industry, including recently Sega laying off developers from Creative Assembly and cancelling Hyenas, as well as Epic parting ways with over 800 workers.
