sisslethecat
Yep, you read that right — The Last of Us Part 2, which had only just been announced as releasing February 21st of next year (like seriously not even a month ago), has been delayed. Now releasing May 29th, 2020, the PS4 exclusive title is being held back in order to apply a bit more polish to the experience in order to hit that “Naughty Dog quality”. From director Niel Druckman’s announcement regarding the delay:
Let me cut to the chase and get the news out of the way. The Last of Us Part II has a new release date of May 29, 2020.
I know. It was just about a month ago when we had our big blowout for the game, letting media play over two hours of it along with debuting our new story trailer and revealing the release date. 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.
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.
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.
We hope you understand that this additional time ensures that The Last of Us Part II lives up to our collective ambition as well as our commitment to the highest level of quality. We know the extra few months will add to what may already be an excruciating wait for all of us. We are grateful for your patience and continued support. Come next May, you will finally rejoin Ellie in The Last of Us Part II.
-Neil
To be perfectly honest, good. Almost everything could stand to have just a little more time dedicated to them, and the recent trend of games being delayed a bit is great to see. Bloodlines 2, Doom: Eternal, apparently UbiSoft’s entire main title lineup, Ghosts of Tsushima (although that seems to have more to do with Last of Us 2 being pushed back), it’s refreshing to see studios chasing quality rather than a dollar lately. We’ll keep you up to date in regards to Last of Us of course, and there’s plenty to look forward to in the meantime. Death Stranding comes out in less than a month, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 in less than a week (although that… that might not be the same demographic).
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