Former Xbox exec thinks Naughty Dog's decision to cancel the 80% completed The Last of Us Online 'was the right call', but it shouldn't have greenlit it in the first place — 'The ambition was there, but the realistic upfront planning wasn't', she says

Laura Fryer says Naughty Dog "ultimately protected what they do best"

10 Apr 2026, 16:04 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/demi-williams · TechRadar

News By Demi Williams published 10 April 2026

(Image credit: Naughty Dog)

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Former Microsoft executive Laura Fryer says Naughty Dog's decision to cancel The Last of Us Online was "the right call"
She explains that the studio "made the harder choice" by looking ahead and realizing it wouldn't be able to sustain a live service game
Fryer also questioned why Naughty Dog greenlit it in the first place, saying, "The ambition was there, but the realistic upfront planning wasn't"

Former Microsoft Game Studios executive producer Laura Fryer thinks the decision to cancel The Last of Us Online was the right decision on Naughty Dog's part, and greenlighting the project was the "real mistake".

Earlier this month, The Last of Us Online game director Vinit Agarwal revealed that the multiplayer spin-off was "almost to 80% completion" and "was very, very close to done" before Naughty Dog pulled the plug in 2023.

At the time of the game's cancellation, the studio renowned for its single-player titles like Uncharted and The Last of Us said it canceled the project because it didn't want to "become a solely live service games studio".

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Agarwal, who shared that he worked on the game for seven years, learned about its cancellation 24 hours before the public, and that Naughty Dog decided to focus on its main single-player narrative game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, instead of diverting resources to an online title.

According to Laura Fryer, despite how devastating the cancellation was for the team and "soul crushing" as Agarwal described, this was "the right call".

"A lot of people are saying they should have just finished the game and shipped it because it was so close, and I understand how frustrating it must be for the players who were looking forward to the game," Fryer said in a new YouTube video.

"But I think that's missing the bigger picture because the truth is that this is a classic example of the sunk cost fallacy, and I've seen it play out many times before where you have a studio that's already spent many years and millions of and they feel like they have to ship the game anyway, that they have no choice, even when they know the long-term live service support will be brutal."

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