Naughty Dog, the studio behind The Last of Us, has reportedly made the difficult decision to lay off at least 25 developers. The Santa Monica-based studio in California communicated this downsizing internally last week, with a focus on departments such as art and production, particularly quality assurance testing. Unfortunately, the development of The Last of Us multiplayer game has also been put on hold.
According to Kotaku, the layoffs primarily affected part-time contractors rather than full-time staff. Shockingly, these developers are not being offered any severance and have been instructed to remain silent about the situation. Their contracts are set to end at the close of October, and they are expected to continue working until then.
Naughty Dog has been working on a multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe for several years. While the project is not officially canceled, it is currently on hold. The studio has not provided many details about the game, but they expressed gratitude to fans for their support after the release of HBO’s TV series. Naughty Dog assured fans that they had been diligently working on the multiplayer title and promised to reveal more soon. However, it seems unlikely that any updates will be shared unless there are changes in the near future.
Source: DOTESPORTS
