Recently, Sony and Naughty Dog shared more information as well as providing a release date for the highly anticipated The Last of Us Part II. The new trailer closed out Sony’s latest State of Play and Naughty Dog shared lot of new details about the new gameplay mechanics and story as part of Outbreak Day 2019. The Last of Us Part II is expected to release on February 21, 2020, however, today Naughty Dog has announced that the game has been delayed to the Spring.
Kotaku‘s Jason Schreier reported that “The PS4 sequel to The Last of Us will no longer be out in February, sources tell Kotaku. Publisher Sony has delayed The Last of Us Part II to this spring, just month after announcing a release date of February 21, 2020.” Nothing has been officially announced, but Kotaku “heard from two people familiar with goings-on at Naughty Dog that the game is bumped to spring. We expect an announcement this week.” Then, Neil Druckmann, Director of The Last of Us Part II confirmed the news and has released a statement saying:
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.
The media was finally able to go hands-on with the game and Naughty Dog released a special behind the demo video where they break down all the new story and gameplay elements that are a part of The Last of Us Part II. The biggest gameplay change is being able to play as Ellie as she is more mobile than Joel which allows for gameplay additions such as the new dodge mechanic and the ability to squeeze through certain things which can lead to an escape or an opportunity to flank enemies. Naughty Dog has shared more details about new technology in the game that has every character have a heartbeat in the game which can make it easier to play cat and mouse with enemies.
During this time, it was also revealed that The Last of Us Part II won’t have multiplayer but Naughty Dog says that it is their most ambitious title yet and it looks like that it’s going to take a little more time… and that’s ok.