Contrary to the flurry of rumors that have been a mainstay online for the last year, Naughty Dog has officially confirmed that The Last Of Us Part II will NOT have a multiplayer function.

The news comes from Naughty Dog Lead Game Designer Emilia Schatz, who confirmed the lack of multiplayer in an interview with USgamer. In a follow-up after the event, Sony also confirmed the news:

“We’re focusing on a single-player experience, so we’re just making a single-player game for this,” Schatz said during the event when asked about what sort of form the previously-confirmed multiplayer mode would take.

The original Last of Us, released in 2013, did feature multiplayer, commonly referred to a Factions. The mode allowed players lead a clan of survivors through 12 weeks with one of two teams: Fireflies or Hunters.

While some fans reacted negatively to the idea of multiplayer in the original game, it ended up being one of many acclaimed aspects from the Naughty Dog title. One might ask, why did the company decide against incorporating the feature in this outing?

Given the sheer anticipation for the sequel, it would seem that fans aren’t too considered with the lack of multiplayer, as the mainly want to get back into the broken but inspired world that Sony and Naughty Dog created here.

The Last of Us Part II hits shelves on February 20, 2019.