It’s well known that the Last of Us Factions, the live service game based on the series has been developing very slowly. In fact, with the exception of a few, most of these live service games that were pushed under Jim Ryan haven’t gone as planned. Which is probably part of why he’s losing his position next year. Anders Howard has been with the company for only a year (maybe less) to help push the monetization functions for the game. However, with the game seeming to be on ice and Naughty Dog releasing developers who were working on Factions, we could have seen the writing on the wall for Anders Howard.

Even still, I may not personally like this whole “live service” push, I don’t take joy in people losing their jobs. But when you see Jim Ryan, the man who pushed for live services at Sony being made to leave soon, you can’t help but put 2 and 2 together.

Source: Insider-Gaming