As one would probably expect by now, yet another video game title has been delayed due to the massive worldwide outbreak of the Coronavirus. This time, Sony has pushed back the release date of the highly anticipated The Last of Us 2. The bad news is that no new release date has been set, meaning this delay has pushed back the debut of the title indefinitely. Sony’s explanation for this delay is that the Coronavirus would prevent “the launch that the players deserve.”
Sony made this statement in a tweet, but even developer Naughty Dog revealed this information on their own Twitter account. Their statement was slightly different, claiming that while the game is in the final stage of development, logistical issues stemming from the outbreak persist that will prevent a simultaneous global launch.
“We were bummed about this decision but ultimately understood it’s what’s best and fair to all of our players,” the statement reads. “We’re hoping that this won’t be a long delay and we’ll update you as soon as we have new information to share.”
This delay is even more unfortunate, considering that the game already gotten delayed in the past. At first, the game was delayed from its previous release date to May 2020, when it had been scheduled for February. Prior to February, it was supposed to come out sometime in 2019. Now it has been delayed yet again, meaning this much-desired title has been delayed a total of three times already. Making the situation even worse is the fact that we don’t even have a new release date attached to this delay.
Granted, the situation is a little different, since the delay this time isn’t due to the need for extra development time. That means that the delay should only last until the Coronavirus outbreak is under control, though there is no way to really know when that will be.
In other news, Sony has specified that COVID-19 will supposedly not impact the release date of the PS5, which is set to debut during the holidays this year. For now that is the case, but there‘s no telling if such a statement will change if the pandemic continues to last. For now, The Last of Us 2 is still intended to debut on the PS4. Despite this newest delay, Naughty Dog still released many new screenshots of the game recently, though whether or not that was a good idea considering that everyone is going to have to wait longer now is debatable.
It’s all wishful thinking, especially in this time in which game after game has been delayed, but if we are lucky the COVID-19 pandemic will pass sooner rather than later. If not, we can reasonably expect even more upcoming games to be pushed back as it becomes harder and harder for developers to work on them. But we’d rather believe that everything will be back to normal soon enough.
