A few weeks ago, Naughty Dog unveiled its first full trailer for The Last of Us Part II, finally announcing that the game was going to be released in February 2020. Now, Naughty Dog has confirmed that they decided to push back the game’s release date, in an attempt to put final touch ups on the highly anticipated sequel.
The news comes directly from game director Neil Druckmann, who wrote in a letter on the Naughty Dog website that the decision to push the game back was made so that nothing about the create process would be compromised. The new release date for the game is 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 this may disappoint fans, the move is necessary. Anticipation for The Last of Us Part II is at an all time high, especially considering the last game came out six years ago. With the pressure on to deliver a game of this caliber, nobody can fault Naughty Dog for wanting to take their time here.
“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.”
The news of the delay comes off Naughty Dog’s other announcement that confirmed Part II won’t include a multiplayer feature, a notion that drew mixed reactions from its audience.
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