This week marked an exciting week for fans that have been eagerly awaiting The Last of Us Part II, as the game's release date was finally confirmed for February 2020 alongside a new trailer that gave us the long-awaited return of Joel. However, one of the more controversial developments that arrived this week was that the upcoming sequel would not feature multiplayer, a situation that caused Naughty Dog to step in with commentary on the matter.Naughty Dog shared an official statement on its Twitter page regarding multiplayer and The Last of Us Part II, with the developer aiming to give some clarity on the news that the Factions mode from the original game would appear to not be returning in Part II.Specifically, Naughty Dog stated that The Last of Us Part II is "the most ambitious project" that the studio has ever undertaken. Given the scope of the single-player component of the anticipated sequel, Naughty Dog explained that "the vision of the team grew beyond an additional mode that could be included with our enormous single player campaign," which led to the "difficult choice" that Part II would not feature any sort of online mode with it.However, Naughty Dog explained that while The Last of Us Part II will not include multiplayer, the studio did state that players will "eventually experience the fruits of our team's online ambition," and that it would "share more when it's ready."Given the context of the statement, it appears that Naughty Dog may be implying that we could potentially see some form of Factions returning in the future, perhaps as a standalone experience built from the ground up for multiplayer. The studio said that "we are as big a fan of Factions as the rest of our community," giving hope for some fans that enjoyed the unique multiplayer experience of the original game that it might not be completely abandoned just yet.The Last of Us Part II will release exclusively for PS4 on February 21, 2020, and you can pre-order the game now over on Amazon. Regarding multiplayer, you can read Naughty Dog's full statement below: