Factions multiplayer was supposed to be the online extension to Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2. An industry insider has revealed why it’s taking longer than anticipated, with the scope of the project differing from the original vision.
The Last of Us Part 2 was a mammoth adventure that carried on the survival story of Joel and Ellie and was a giant title in terms of its story, accolades, and the franchise’s legacy. As well as its substantial main campaign, the game was also supposed to be receiving Factions multiplayer later on.
Factions was a concept first seen in the original The Last of Us and saw players taking sides with either the Hunters or Fireflies. Players would then need to keep their group of survivors alive through 84 matches by completing objectives and performing well enough in online multiplayer games.
We are now two years removed from the release of The Last of Us Part 2 and the Factions add-on is nowhere to be seen. However, even with a The Last of Us remake in development, new information suggests that this is no accident.
A bigger version of Factions could pull in a lot of players.Jeff Grubb is a renowned leaker of video game information with many purported sources. During one of his recent podcasts, the topic of The Last of Us Part 2’s Factions multiplayer came up and Jeff divulged his thoughts on the subject.
“I think that no game called “Factions” will ever come out. But not in a bad way, they [Naughty Dog] probably just decided they could do more. That’s the stuff I was able to source in multiple places and that I would feel ok in saying. Everything else was kinda on lock, it seems pretty well known in some circles that they are moving beyond their original smaller ambitions to something more and that’s as much as I can possibly say.”
Jeff also feels that the magnitude of the game could be so large that Factions could become a full live service title.
This probably wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this turned out to be the case as Naughty Dog are known for expanding upon original games and going the extra mile to make a follow-up bigger and better. Factions was revered for having such a different approach to online multiplayer and turning it into a fully-fledged mode standalone be the perfect recipe.
As usual, take this leak with a pinch of salt, but with how much longer the potential component is taking to release, it’s a good assumption that the mode is becoming greater than initially envisaged.
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