As of this morning, the listing for The Last of Us Part II on the PlayStation Store has been completely removed, meaning you can no longer view it on the PSN, nor can it be pre-ordered on the platform. While you can still search for PlayStation 4 avatars and themes with characters from the game, the title itself is completely absent from the store. In addition, the upcoming VR title, Iron Man VR, was also delayed and subsequently removed from the store as well.
The official PlayStation Support website mentioned in the above tweet does have a banner at the top that states “The Last of Us Part II and Iron Man VR have been delayed. All digital pre-order consumers will automatically receive a refund. Please check your email for more details.” In short, Sony is giving everyone who pre-ordered a digital copy of both The Last of Us Part II and Iron Man VR on the PSN will be getting a complete refund. It’s possible that those refunds have already been given, but it’s not entirely clear if that has been the case.
Last week it was announced that one of the most highly anticipated games of 2020 had been delayed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. This marks the second time that the game was delayed, with the first one being due to needing more time to complete it, moving it back from its initial February 21 date to the now-defunct May 29 date. Creative Director Neil Druckman recently spoke on potential digital release for the game stating that ” What is the internet infrastructure there to support it in all countries? “This is worldwide game that people in every country are waiting for, and we want to make sure we’re fair.”
Whether it’s considered fair or not, it looks like a decision was made, and a digital-only release probably isn’t going to happen any time soon. While the game could potentially still release in a timely manner this year, the future is up in the air for The Last of Us Part II. Being removed from the PSN obviously doesn’t help the situation either, but as the world deals with the impact of COVID-19 and the pandemic, certain things must be taken into account. Sony still insists that the PlayStation 5’s release will not be hampered by the pandemic, but it’s fairly apparent that the longer this goes on, it’s more likely that we’ll see more delays and cancellations.