The Last of Us Online Petition Picks Up Steam as Fans Push for Revival
- Sagar Mankar
- May 2
- 3 min read
A fan-created petition is urging Naughty Dog and Sony PlayStation to reconsider the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, the multiplayer project that was shut down in December 2023.
The petition was started on April 30 by Kristopher McCabe on Change.org. It addresses both Naughty Dog and PlayStation directly, making a case that the studio made a promise to its community back in 2020 that was never fulfilled.
"We urge Naughty Dog, Sony PlayStation, and all stakeholders involved to fulfill their 2020 promise and release the next chapter of Factions online," the petition reads. "Not only would this honor the dedication and passion of a committed fan base, but it would also capitalize on the evolving gaming market, ensuring that The Last of Us remains at the forefront of multiplayer gaming experiences."
To understand why this petition carries so much weight, it helps to look back at where it all started. The original Factions multiplayer mode launched with The Last of Us in 2013 and quickly built a reputation as one of the best multiplayer experiences of its generation. The mode offered tense, resource-scarce survival gameplay with crafting, scavenging, and faction-based PvP matches. Remarkably, those servers are still active today on PS3 and PS4 versions of the game, which tells you everything about how dedicated the community really is.
After The Last of Us Part II released in 2020, Naughty Dog shifted focus toward a bigger, standalone multiplayer title rather than including a mode directly in Part II. The project was publicly revealed through concept art at Summer Game Fest 2022 and was in development for roughly seven years, from around 2016 to 2023. The game aimed to deliver a more ambitious live-service experience with deeper progression, clans, crafting, and brutal post-apocalyptic PvP. Studio head Neil Druckmann even called it Naughty Dog's "most ambitious project" in January 2023.
Then came the cancellation. On December 14, 2023, Naughty Dog announced they were pulling the plug. Their reasoning was that the game's "massive scope" and the "ongoing post-launch support" it would require would pull too many resources away from their single-player narrative projects.
What made the situation even more painful was revealed through interviews with former game director Vinit Agarwal earlier this year. Speaking to podcaster Lance E. Lee, as reported by Kotaku, Agarwal said the game was approximately "80% complete" at the time of cancellation, noting it was "very, very close to done." He shared that Sony had invested heavily in the project following the surge in online gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that internally, things were going well. The game "made a lot of progress, and the game was doing really, really well internally," he said.
However, as pandemic restrictions lifted and in-person work resumed, resources began to be pulled back from the project. Eventually, Naughty Dog faced a choice between continuing The Last of Us Online or moving forward with the next game being directed by Neil Druckmann. The online title lost out.
"That was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on that game and it was soul-crushing," Agarwal said. He also revealed he found out about the cancellation just 24 hours before Naughty Dog's public announcement. Agarwal left Naughty Dog in January 2025 and has since moved to Japan to start his own studio.
The emotional weight around this game has not faded. Just a week before the petition launched, Agarwal posted on X saying, "It's wild how many of my ex-colleagues still message me today saying how amazing TLOU Online was going to be," and that they think it is "still the best multiplayer game they've ever played." When the game was originally canceled, one developer called it "the highlight of my career." Statements like these keep the conversation alive and give fans more reason to feel that something genuinely special was lost.
The petition itself makes a broader point beyond nostalgia. It argues that the current gaming landscape is ripe for exactly the kind of third-person multiplayer experience The Last of Us universe could offer. Both PvE and PvP titles have seen strong success in recent years, and the franchise's well-established world, mechanics, and fanbase would give it a natural advantage in that space.
As for what Naughty Dog is working on now, the studio is focused on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet for PlayStation 5, alongside a separate project that has been kept largely under wraps.
Honestly, a petition is unlikely to change a major studio’s decision. But the fact that hundreds of fans rallied behind this cause within hours shows just how much this game still means to people. The Last of Us Online may be gone, but it’s clearly not forgotten. As of now, 1,130 have signed the petition, and the number keeps climbing.
