The Last of Us Part II Devs Reveal They Had to Cut “A Lot” of Content

The Last of Us Part II is just a week away and it is massive. While our review is in progress, the scope of the story told is hefty but the developers behind the sequel are now saying the game was actually much larger originally but that they had to cut “a lot” of content to get it ready to ship. 

Naughty Dog co-writer Halley Gross recently sat down with the folks over at Sector to talk about the highly coveted sequel. When discussing the studio’s latest game, Gross mentioned there was actually a ton of content created that though incredible, wasn’t quite able to fit into the story in order to make sure everything stayed cohesive. 

“We have a huge studio with a lot of talented people who have great ideas, and we had to choose which ones would stay in the game and fit into the story and which would deviate from it,” Gross told the site. “In the end, it all had to match the topic. Neil was in charge of it all – whether it corresponded to the theme in terms of storytelling, artificial intelligence behavior, or the artistic side. Everything had to correspond to the central theme. The hardest part was cutting out the content, as there were a lot of things that didn’t make it into the final game.”

Related: The Last of Us HBO TV Series Will Closely Follow the Game, Confirms Creator

Game development, as a whole, is a much larger process that many may realize. It’s a major collaborative effort, and that includes the storyteller side of the team. With so many creatives in one space, the magic flies but unfortunately, there’s not always room for everyone’s ideas to make it into the final product. 

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Even still, the sequel promises a harrowing tale of revenge and survival, taking Ellie to a place we’ve yet to see in the previous entry. Are you ready to take to this dangerous world within The Last of Us Part II when it drops of PlayStation 4 on June 19th? Sound off with your thoughts on what you have seen so far over on Twitter @PrimaGames!