Sony Interactive Entertainment might be looking into implementing battle royale into one of its popular franchises to gain ground on the free-to-play market.

The Last of Us Part II launched over a year ago on PlayStation 4. Officially, there’s no word on a PlayStation 5 version yet by Naughty Dog. Still, we all know well that it’s going to happen (as the game launched late in the generation, similarly to the first one, which hit the shelves just months before the PlayStation 4 became available…).

Previously, Naughty Dog said the following about why they do not include multiplayer in The Last of Us Part II: “We wanted to address multiplayer in The Last of Us Part II. As we’ve stated, the single-player campaign is far and away the most ambitious project Naughty Dog has ever undertaken. Likewise, as development began on the evolution of our Factions mode from The Last of Us Part I, the team’s vision grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our massive single-player campaign. Wanting to support both ideas, we made the difficult choice that The Last of Us Part II would not have an online mode.

However, you will eventually experience the fruits of our team’s online ambition, but not as part of The Last of Us Part II. When and where it will be realized is still to be determined. But rest assured, we are as big a fan of Factions as the rest of our community and are excited to share more when it’s ready,” the studio wrote.

Now, we can suspect what the studio might be planning for the multiplayer. Battle royale is still going very strong. Just think of Fortnite or Call of Duty: Warzone as prime examples. A YouTuber called Speclizer has dug into The Last of Us Part II files, revealing the results in the video embedded below. The results are somewhat shocking.

They found a big, battle royale-themed arena. As The Last of Us’ Factions mode had smaller, deathmatch-styled maps, this is a significant change. There were some 3D assets for some of these locations (Motel, Port, Gas Station), and some of these locations seem to be partly lifted from the story mode. A collar was also found, hinting at a potential addition of dogs.

Keep in mind that it isn’t official yet.

Source: WCCFTech