The Last of Us Part 2 is no longer set to be released on PS4 on May 29, Sony and developer Naughty Dog announced today.
A tweet today from Sony confirmed “Update: SIE has made the difficult decision to delay the launch of The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Iron Man VR until further notice. Logistically, the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.” The company followed the statement with “Currently, there are no other delays to report, but we’ll keep you updated.”
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Naughty Dog also released a statement on Twitter about the delay, which you can read in full below:
As you’ve likely just seen, the release of The last of Us Part II has been delayed. We’re sure this news is just as disappointing to you as it is to us. We wanted to reach out to all of you in our community to give you a little more information.
The good news is, we’re nearly done with development of The Last of Us Part II. We are in the midst of fixing our final bugs.
However, even with us finishing the game, we were faced with the reality that due to logistics beyond our control, we couldn’t launch The Last of Us Part II to our satisfaction. We want to make sure everyone gets to play The last of Us Part II around the same time, ensuring that we’re doing everything possible to preserve the best experience for everyone. This meant delaying the game until such a time where we can solve these logistic issues.
We were bummed about this decision but ultimately understood what’s best and fair to all of our players. We’re hoping that this won’t be a long delay, and we’ll update you as soon as we have new information to share.
We wish you all, your families, and your friends the best of health. Thank you for being amazing fans and your continued support.
Stay safe!
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The Last of Us Part 2 first received a release date of February 22, 2020 late last year, coupled with a story trailer and our first chance to go hands-on with The Last of Us’ long-awaited sequel.
Shortly after, Naughty Dog announced a delayed Last of Us Part 2 release date to May 29, with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann saying “We realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality.” And recent reports have alleged that The Last of Us Part 2 led to sustained crunch at Naughty Dog rather than alleviating development crunch.
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The Last of Us Part 2 was also supposed to have its first public hands-on at PAX East 2020, but due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, Sony pulled out of PAX East.
Sony and HBO also recently announced that a The Last of Us TV show adaptation is in the works, set to air on HBO with Druckmann and Chernobyl executive producer Craig Mazin behind the series. (And the TV show will replace The Last of Us movie that was in the works.) No casting has been announced, but we’ve offered plenty of suggestions for who should play Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us TV show.
For more on the upcoming sequel, we spoke to Druckmann about Joel’s role in The Last of Us Part 2, why The Last of Us Part 2 isn’t an open world game, as well as how dogs affect stealth and combat in The Last of Us sequel.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s senior news editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
Source: IGN.com The Last of Us Part 2 Delayed Indefinitely