Naughty Dog is developing its “first standalone multiplayer action game”, after rolling out a new recruitment notice via Twitter. According to the post, the studio is “aggressively hiring”, urging those who “want to be part of bringing the cinematic experience between players” to apply now.
If you take a look at Naughty Dog’s Careers page, the Santa Monica studio is advertising for a wealth of positions in everything from Animation and Game Design to Lighting & Visual Effects and Technical Art. There are additional positions to be filled in Art, Audio, Programming, and Quality Assurance.
We're aggressively hiring – apply if you want to be part of bringing the cinematic experience between players in our new standalone multiplayer action game. https://t.co/SHtU4AKyI7
— Vinit Agarwal (@vinixkun) August 27, 2021
As previously reported, Naughty Dog was seeking an economy designer for a multiplayer game with live service elements. The successful applicant would be required to “design, implement, and tune game economy and player progression systems” with “experience designing successful economies in PC or console multiplayer games.”
At the same time, Neil Druckmann confirmed that Naughty Dog had several new projects in development. He asked for patience from fans but teased that the studio had “several cool things we can’t wait to share with you.”
An update regarding multiplayer: pic.twitter.com/CUd98LgJGC
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) September 27, 2019
There’s no word yet on what this multiplayer game will be, but speculation leans toward the delayed Factions mode for The Last Of Us Part II, about which the studio provided an update in September 2020. Due to the scale of the single-player campaign, which Naughty Dog described as “the most ambitious project” the studio had ever undertaken, “the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single player campaign.”
As a result, the studio made the decision not to include an online mode with Part II, promising fans that they’d “eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition.”