Just a month ago, Sony and Naughty Dog broke their silence on the highly-anticipated PS4 exclusive, The Last of Us Part II. We got new gameplay, new details on the story, and even the much sought after release date! Turns out that the game won’t actually hit that release date, though.
Today after rumors began swirling that The Last of Us Part II was hit with a delay, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann confirmed the news. The dramatic survival horror game will now release on May 29th, 2020, 3 months further from its initial February 2020 date.
Druckmann noted that The Last of Us Part II’s delay will be used to polish the game and ensure no unnecessary compromises are made.
“The positive response we saw from our community was overwhelming. You can feel the energy among the team members. After working on something for so many years, it’s invigorating to get a glimpse of validation for all the hard work,” said Druckmann. “However, it was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that 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. At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team.”
Druckmann also noted that the game was bigger and more ambitious than they anticipated, causing unforeseen issues.
“While we’re relieved that we won’t have to compromise our vision, we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to avoid this exact situation. We wish we could’ve foreseen the amount of polish we needed, but the size and scope of this game got the better of us. We hate disappointing our fans and for that we’re sorry.”
The Last of Us Part II will now release on May 29th, 2019 for PlayStation 4.
