COVID-19 to blame for 'The Last of Us Part II' delay, game director reveals more details

Looking back in 2019, the game release calendar for 2020 showed multiple high-profile titles slated for the first half. Unfortunately, the gaming community's excitement was quickly dampened when several game studios announced changes. "Final Fantasy VII Remake" was pushed back to April from March and "Cyberpunk 2077" was rescheduled for September instead of this month. "The Last of Us Part II" was originally pegged for a May debut, but Naughty Dog recently broke the news that it has been delayed indefinitely.

Those who were closely following the game's development know that it was originally set for Feb. 21, but was then moved to Friday, May 29, after the developers needed an extension to add the final touches. Fans of the publisher generally reacted favourably to the change given the quality of games it has released in the past were outstanding. Unfortunately, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic apparently causing problems for folk directly working on the game, according to GameSpot.

This unfortunate news was relayed by game director Neil Druckman as he highlighted the COVID-19 outbreak as the cause. He confirmed the decision to indefinitely push back the launch of "The Last of Us Part II" through a PlayStation Blogcast. Moreover, he offered an explanation as to why unlike other AAA releases such as "Final Fantasy VII Remake" a playable demo was not available. It appears that this would just add more to the plate of an already heavy workload for the team.

Going back to the subject of its delay, Druckman said. "It's a bit rough. You're working on something for so long; for some of us, for years. There is a built-in anticipation; you can't wait for this thing that you've been crafting and honing and sometimes dreaming about. You can't wait to get it into people's hands, and see their reactions; what they like, what they didn't like or where the story takes them. And now you gotta put all that on hold because the world is conspiring against us."

The staff are all apparently working from home to minimise COVID-19 infections. While this is ideal given the current health crisis, efficiency is not the same level as in the office given a lot of factors. Nevertheless, Naughty Dog assures its fans that "The Last of Us Part II is practically complete. However, the focus right now primarily on just discovering and fixing bugs.