The Last Of Us Part II DLC Has 'Been Shelved'
If the brutal world of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us wasn't already grim enough, it sounds like plans for a post-release DLC for The Last of Us Part II have taken a golf club to the head. These days, it's not a simple case of releasing a game, watching the money roll in, and then moving on to your next project. 2013's The Last of Us delivered both the Factions multiplayer and Left Behind DLC, but for those hoping we'll get to see more of Joel, your luck might've run out.
As with any AAA game, players have come to expect something more. Although Naughty Dog is still beavering away on a mythical multiplayer for Part II, our dreams that we'll get a Left Behind-inspired DLC have been dashed by the latest rumours. Left Behind focussed on lead character Ellie by bookending her story as an aside to the main campaign. By the sounds of it, the team isn't abandoning The Last of Us Part II to the mold-ravaged zombies that reside within it, however, plans for a DLC were scrapped during a reshuffle of the game's priorities.
What happened to The Last of Us Part II DLC?
Speaking to the MinnMax Show, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier explained, "I believe at one point [Naughty Dog] was thinking about DLC, but I don’t think that happened. I dunno, they might still do something". Instead, Schreier seems adamant the Naughty Dog team is still hard at work until the studio announces its next big project. Even if a DLC is brown bread, he thinks teams are working on both the Part II multiplayer and a long-rumoured PlayStation 5 remaster of the first game. Despite the release of The Last of Us Remastered in 2014, fans have been asking for a fully next-gen version to make the most of the PS5.
As for a planned DLC, we're left guessing what it would be about. Even though the divisive Abby got her time to shine in the second half of Part II, the most logical DLC route would take a leaf out of Left Behind's book and reveal what she was up to in the early days of the apocalypse. Then again, recent reports that an Abby DLC was in the works split fandom and led to some rather salty responses. Of course, another possible avenue would feature the grizzled Tommy going after Abby on his mission of vengeance for what happened in Part II.
Is this bad news for the rest of The Last of Us Part II?
Looking at the game as a whole, does the scrapped The Last of Us Part II DLC spell trouble for the game's post-release? It's important to remember it hasn't even been a year since the game first hit shelves. According to Schreier, work continues on the multiplayer. It might seem odd to release a multiplayer this long after release - without adding a new single-player story - but Naughty Dog knows what it's doing. Added to this, it's important to note Schreier doesn't completely discount the idea of a Part II DLC, just that it's not in the works right now.
Elsewhere, Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann recently teased "several" exciting announcements. While some hope there's going to be the high-profile reveal of a new Uncharted game, there's almost certainly going to be something related to The Last of Us. Even if some might be shocked that a Part II DLC isn't in the works, it echoes Druckmann's promises last year when he said there were "no plans" for a DLC. For the time being, we'll have to wait and see whether the conflict between Abby and Tommy spills over into the inevitable The Last of Us Part III
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