The studio is not sitting idly by after The Last of Us Online (or as we used to call it, The Last of Us: Factions) was canceled…

2020 will see the release of Naughty Dog’s latest game, The Last of Us Part 2 (not counting the remake of the first part and the remaster of the second part…) In 2023, The Last of Us Online, which was too big and developed as a standalone project rather than a game mode in TLoU2, was canceled using a live service model, as it would have wasted too many resources on post-launch support and prevented the studio from working on single-player titles.

Naughty Dog has since shifted work to its new IP and The Last of Us Part 3. The former is rumored to be coming first, and Ryan from the Bronx (this leaker was formerly known as Midori) claims on Twitter that the new IP’s codename within the studio has become Jordan. He backs this up with a Slack link (https://sie-nd-jordan.slack.com) reserved for Sony Interactive Entertainment employees. In the link, the terms SIE, ND, and Jordan are highly suspicious, as the first part is self-explanatory, the second is an abbreviation for Naughty Dog, and the third could be the codename…

The codename for the next Naughty Dog project is Jordan.

This is the official Slack URL for the project, which will redirect to an enterprise SSO page for Sony Interactive Entertainment employees, confirming the codename and Slack channel as legitimate.https://t.co/eoiwLZPYIX

— Ryan from the Bronx (@ryanfrombronx) November 30, 2024

And yes, this is their next (current) project in development. This is not a cancelled project or project that has already been released or announced.

— Ryan from the Bronx (@ryanfrombronx) November 30, 2024

In another tweet, he also wrote that Jordan could be Naughty Dog’s next game, and that none of the previously announced, released, or canceled projects have been linked to this codename. Because of this, it could indeed be a new IP, and thus the new intellectual property could indeed be made next. In the past, Naughty Dog has been similarly mysterious with codenames, as The Last of Us, released for PS3 in 2013, was codenamed Project Thing or T1. The name Jordan could refer to a character name or a location, but presumably it’s something that will only be revealed when Naughty Dog finally unveils the game.

None of this is official yet!

Source: GameRant