No Mod/Cons: Unofficial ‘THE LAST OF US’ multiplayer modification blocked…

Though game developer Naughty Dog recently hinted that there would be more The Last of Us to come in the game realm, one possible avenue has been nixed.

Even for those craving a third entry in The Last of Us game series, the Holy Grail has been a multiplayer version of the game where you can not only tackle the threat of the infected and militant forces involved in the fungal post-apocalyptic landscape, but also interact with other players.

For a long time, Naughty Dog were working on just that. Parallel to the development of The Last of Us: Part Two, the plan was to have a multiplayer addition but the project was cancelled in 2023. This was surprising to many for several reasons: The original The Last of Us game had a similar online component known as ‘Factions‘ which had proven popular and it was believed that the next multiplayer project was 80% completed at the time. But it also appears that the last 20% was crucial and that it was deemed that the project would be too ambitious to profitable, despite the interest.

Earlier this year a famous/infamous Mod developer Speclizer said they were working on an unofficial addition to the game that would emulate that multi-player aspect. There was considerable excitement about the idea, especially when Speclizer posted footage of the changes that the modification would allow players to make (multiple protaganists, different looks – even playing as if you looked like one of the infected etc.)

However, there were certain – somewhat obvious – wrinkles in that idea. Speclizer did not own the copyright to the concept or characters and there are some accounts that funding for the modification involved payment to their Paetron account. (This aspect is not entirely clear, but could be a factor in what happened this week…)

Speclizer has revealed that they had received what was essentially a request but close to a cease and desist letter from Naughty Dog and SONY this week.

They wrote: The TLOU 2 Multiplayer mod that has been in development since January was supposed to release this month. Unfortunately I recently received a letter on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment requesting for the mod not to be released. Extremely sad that this never got to see the light of day but I hope you’ll continue to follow me onto the next project, this time something of my own.

It isn’t quite clear if this was a pragmatic request or a formal demand, but the outcome is the same: no multiplayer. The optics of the decision (again cutting off completion/access to a modification/extra that fans desperately want) aren’t great, but the stance is legally understandable given that The Last of Us is a copyrighted work making money and to allow someone to come along and profit from that would open the floodgates to others ‘borrowing’ the tech and making money without permission and citing Speclizer as a precedent.