Sony letter spells the end for unreleased The Last of Us Part 2 multiplayer mod, its creator says

InterCordycepted before it could arrive

A multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part 2 which was originally set to release this month no longer will, with its creator citing a letter from publishers Sony as the reason it won't see the light of day.

"Hey everyone, as you all know, the TLOU 2 multiplayer mod that has been in development since January was supposed to release this month," modder and YouTuber Speclizer wrote in a post to social media. "Unfortunately I recently received a letter on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment requesting for the mod not to be released. Extremely sad that this never got to see the light of day but I hope you'll continue to follow me onto the next project, this time something of my own. Thank you all for the incredible amount of support over the last year. I hope to bring you something bigger and better soon!"

Since starting work on the mod, Speclizer had posted regular clips of in-development versions of it in action to their YouTube channel, with the most recent video being published on August 22nd. "We've gone from a buggy 1v1 test to something that actually feels like a real multiplayer mode," the modder said in that video, touting newly added features like public matchmaking and a loadout system.

If indeed Sony have sent word of warning to Speclizer, they're not the first modder/developer to have recieved that sort of treatment from the console makers, with Bloodborne Kart lead dev Lilith Walther having had to rebrand that fan game back in 2024 following contact from PlayStation's corporate overlords. The strongly worded letter is always a risk with modding projects. Cases in which the base game is made by a company who're known to be open to modding and the modders aren't trying to monetise such work outside of officially-run creator partnership programs tend to be safest, but at the end of the day the whims of the corps have the final say.

Monetisation might have been where Speclizer came a cropper, as the description of a TLOU 2 multiplayer mod showcase video they posted back in June touts being able to "gain early access to Starlight" via a Patreon page - which now only seems to host a "Notice" posted on September 6th. Another video on Speclizer's channel shows off a mod menu for The Last of Us Part 2's PC port called Starlight.

Here's hoping these modders can avoid ending up with nothing released to show for a ton of hard work with their future projects.