Neil Druckmann, the creative director of The Last of Us Part II, also grabbed a microphone after the somewhat expected delay.

Druckmann can be heard on Soundcloud in the newest PlayStation Blogcast. Here, he said the following: „Internally, we know we have a great game and we just have to wait a bit longer to get it out there to the fans. I know the fans are disappointed, and believe me when I say this, we are just as disappointed, if not more so, not to be able to get the game out on time. A few weeks ago, we saw the writing on the wall and even before it was mandated [due to coronavirus], we started moving to get people to work from home. Everyone at Naughty Dog is now working from home on the game.” he says.

The game is now – using a bit of American football terminology – is at the „one-yard line,” with bug fixing and polishing left to do. „It’s there, that’s the frustrating part for us. It’s like the game is there, and we have to sit on it for a little bit and figure out what’s the best way to get it to our fans,” Druckmann says. The reason why Sony and Naughty Dog decided against the May 29 digital-only release is that not everyone has the infrastructure to download the game, which means some players would be privileged and some won’t: „There hasn’t been a final decision yet, we’re just reacting to the different retail chains, whether we can get physical copies to people. Also the digital infrastructure. This is a worldwide game that people in every country are waiting for and we want to make sure we’re fair. If we just get it to a small fraction of people, what does it do to the people who don’t get it? So, we’re looking at all sorts of different options like what’s the best way to get it to all of our fans as soon as possible. But that’s going to take time for us to ship and get things figured out. And also seeing where the world is at, as things are changing day-to-day.”

Why there won’t be a demo? Druckmann believes there is a significant difference between the press demo (which would have been shown to the people at PAX East before Sony pulled out due to the coronavirus) and a public demo. For the former, the devs would be there to keep the game at bay (with limited accessibility), and for the latter, they’d have to start nearly from scratch, not to mention how Druckmann says the press build is outdated by now.

We don’t understand this approach: why not put a smaller team on the press demo to at least release that, while The Last of Us Part II’s release date has a question mark? (Or it’s just an excuse to work on the PlayStation 5 build, as it’s unlikely to be exclusive to the PlayStation 4.)

Source: VG247

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