Earlier this month Naughty Dog gave the official word that The Last of Us Part II has been delayed indefinitely due to logistical complications following the continued spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus. The internet mourned en masse alongside the devs and now there’s just one more quick twist of that knife: it’s now removed from the PlayStation Store.
Don’t worry, the removal is pretty standard but for those excited for the highly anticipated sequel? It’s just yet another reminder of its delay, the third since the original release date was set last year. Usually, games don’t have a prominent listing unless they have a set release date, which this no longer does. The bright side is that the game is completely done, it just needs some fine-tune polishing, and ultimately that was the reason behind its pushback. While disappointing, it’s better to wait a little longer and get it right than rush release it and hope to fix something broken later.
In case you missed the initial news, Naughty Dog released a lengthy statement at the beginning of the month talking about the reason of the delay and what their hope is for the future. You can read the full statement here, but it’s good to see that the team is communicative of each decision being made even if we aren’t exactly thrilled with the outcomes.
As for the game itself, The Last of Us Part II is official without a release date at this time for PlayStation 4 players, though the original game is on sale for a pretty nifty price if you’re looking to catch up on the journey so far! Just … bring a lot of tissues, it gets pretty sad.
Many are hoping that the indefinite pushback means that The Last of Us Part II demo that was supposed to make its appearance during PAX East, though that was later cancelled for safety reasons, would be made public, but Sony didn’t seem too thrilled with that idea. The main reason being that pushing the demo in a readied state would put “a massive amount of work that we don’t want to put our team through” during these trying times.
You can learn more about The Last of Us Part II with our Game Hub here, including the latest batch of screenshots that have us excited all over again!
