Gamers everywhere still lament the loss of The Last of Us multiplayer game. But there’s still hope! Two former Naughty Dog devs are working to create a multiplayer game to fill the void: The Last of Us Online game director Vinit Agarwal and creative director Joe Pettinati.
In a conversation with Game*Spark, Argawalm outlined his history in the gaming industry and spoke on his desire to make a new multiplayer game after the cancellation of The Last of Us Online.
“I’ve been in the game industry for about 15 years, 10 of which I worked at Naughty Dog,” he explained, via auto translation. “Before that, I was involved in free-to-play game development, but I was thinking about making something a little more hardcore, and that’s when I came across the multiplayer mode, ‘Factions,’ included in the original The Last of Us, and became hooked.”
“With that momentum, I applied to Naughty Dog and was fortunate enough to be hired,” Argawalm continued. “Naughty Dog has many amazing people who are top-class in the industry, so I was worried that I would be fired within a month, but I was able to work my way up from junior game designer to game director. I then became independent in early 2025.”
Argawalm has a pretty impressive resume with Naughty Dog, including some beloved titles.
“My main titles were Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and The Last of Us Part 2,” he explained, via machine translation. “I worked on both multiplayer and single-player versions. I was mainly in charge of boss battles, and Naughty Dog’s boss battles are generally one-on-one situations, so I wanted players to feel like they were facing a human player, not an AI, even in single-player mode.”
going independent after a decade at Naughty Dog
Leaving the relative comfort and safety of a large company like Naughty Dog isn’t for everyone. After all, it’s been around for over 40 years—that’s no small accomplishment. But for Argwalm, going independent means bringing his creative vision to life. That’s where the new cinematic multiplayer game comes in.
“The main reason I wanted to create it myself was because I saw the potential in combining the cinematic action that Naughty Dog specializes in with multiplayer,” he said.
“Actually, I’m starting my new company with Joe Pettinati, who was the narrative lead and creative director at Naughty Dog. Joe lives in the US, and I’ve moved to Japan, and we’ll be developing games at two different locations.”
Sadly (but understandably), Argwalm stayed tight-lipped about the new offering. The details he did give, however, sound more than a little interesting.
“There’s not much we can say yet, but our new game is a multiplayer game, and we aim to bring the cinematic action familiar from our previous works to the multiplayer between players,” he said.
“It’s a “Triple-Indie” feel. It doesn’t have the budget of a AAA game, but it has the fast-paced feel of an indie game, while still being influenced by AAA story and gameplay.”
sony missed an opportunity with naughty dog and the last of us online
Maybe if Sony weren’t so hellbent on pushing live service games, we could have had something special. I get why Naughty Dog decided not to go forward with it. No one wants to get locked into supporting a live service game forever.
Hopefully, Argawalm and his team can pull off their vision. A cinematic multiplayer game sounds difficult to nail down. But if there is anyone who can do it, it’s someone who’s been at the helm of a multitude of classics.
The post Former Naughty Dog Director Wants to Make a Cinematic Multiplayer Game appeared first on VICE.
