Back when Naughty Dog was first talking about The Last of Us: Part II, it mentioned that multiplayer would be a part of the equation. Specifically, it referenced that the Factions experience from The Last of Us would be back. Now, there’s been an update that shows the idea of Factions isn’t dead, but it won’t be back in The Last of Us: Part II .
In a The Telegraph interview, it was confirmed that there would be no The Last of Us: Part II multiplayer included with the main game. Neil Druckmann, the Vice President of Naughty Dog, said, “It’s so ambitious that we actually decided to make it single player only. There’s no multiplayer in The Last of Us Part 2. We wanted to take all of the resources to make this the biggest game we’ve ever done.” Given the popularity and quality of Factions, as well as earlier statements, people asked for clarification.
This ended up being provided on the official Naughty Dog Twitter account. It first noted that, due to the ambition and desire to make The Last of Us: Part II as big as possible and meet its goals, it decided not to offer an online mode. This was to ensure that quality was maintained.
It did note that Factions isn’t dead, however. It will appear again, just not in The Last of Us: Part II. The statement read, “However, you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us: Part II. When and where it will be realized is still to be determined. But rest assured, we are as big a fan of Factions as the rest of our community and are excited to share more when it’s ready.”