And just like that, The Last of Us II is off the table and delayed indefinitely because of the current pandemic that is sweeping the globe.
Update: SIE has made the difficult decision to delay the launch of The Last of Us Part II and Marvel's Iron Man VR until further notice. Logistically, the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 2, 2020
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, the current situation we face is unlike anything most of us have faced before. However, there is some good news in all this sadness going around – development is done on The Last of Us II, and the studio is working on squashing bugs. The bad news is the delay is because of logistics and I totally understand the necessity to delay a game in this landscape.
Originally, The Last of Us II was meant to launch in February 2020, then Naughty Dog delayed the game to May 29, 2020. Now the game is off the release calendar.
Naughty Dog released this statement:
A message from us about the delay of The Last of Us Part II: pic.twitter.com/aGsSRfmJ8a
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 2, 2020
Economically, shipping a game during a pandemic is not feasible, this situation will likely not blow over until the summer and the profit Sony would lose out on would be felt.
Sony also said that other than delaying Iron Man VR and The Last of Us II, no other games are expected to be delayed.
