4A Games has confirmed that the planned multiplayer component for Metro: Last Light has been shelved.
Speaking on the developer’s blog, the company revealed that the decision was made after E3 to assimilate the multiplayer team into the core group in order to focus on the game’s main campaign.
"Throughout the development of Metro: Last light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes," it wrote. "After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100% of the studio’s resources on the single player campaign. As a result, Metro: Last Light will not ship with a multiplayer component.”
"Your response to our E3 demo made it very clear that although there was a lot of interest and intrigue around Metro’s multiplayer, the single player campaign is what the fanbase cares about the most."
It went on to add that “in hindsight, it was probably a mistake to announce [multiplayer] when we did, but we’re an enthusiastic team and wanted to be open about what we were making!”
4A hinted that the cut multiplayer might be later integrated via post-launch support, however.
“Right now we’re 100% focused on the single player campaign and not thinking beyond that. We don’t like throwing away work though, it’s a project we could potentially return to after Metro: Last Light ships,” it said.
Metro: Last Light is due out in 2013 for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360.