COVID Central: Naughty Dog Postpones The Last of Us: Part 2 "Indefinitely"

We all need new games to play now that we’re stuck inside, and the good news is that many game companies have been able to continue churning out games thanks to the increasingly digital nature of our medium. But it was only a matter of time before some developers realized that their release plans and the COVID-19 pandemic simply don’t align: and it seems the first studio to admit that the pandemic is going to be a problem for development will be Naughty Dog.

Because in spite of the fact the game is nearly done and we were inching close to its release, they’ve decided to postpone The Last of Us: Part 2 indefinitely.

Sony broke the news on Twitter, writing:

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.

While Naughty Dog followed up with:

“The good news is, we’re nearly done with development of The Last of Us Part II.... However, even with us finishing the game, we were faced with the reality that due to logistics beyond our control, we couldn’t launch The Last of Us Part II to our satisfaction. We want to make sure everyone gets to play The Last of Us Part II around the same time, ensuring that we’re doing everything possible to preserve the best experience for everyone. This meant delaying the game until such a time where we can solve these logistic issues.”

Most employees at Naughty Dog, as we understand, are currently working from home in self-quarantine. This could cause a delay, but the fact they’re postponing it indefinitely, seemingly to keep some fans for spoiling it for the others, suggests that the problem isn't something entirely in their hands. So... we’ll have to see what comes of this, although they do say they hope it'll be short.

Either way, we’ll have to find another fictional apocalypse to wander through to avoid not wandering through our very real one.