The Last of Us 2 Delayed Indefinitely Due to Coronavirus Emergency

The Last of Us Part II has been delayed indefinitely due to the global coronavirus emergency, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment. The publisher announced the news over Twitter. Marvel’s Iron Man VR has also been delayed.

“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,” reads the message to fans.

Sony didn’t elaborate on the in-house circumstances that led to the game’s delay, but in a letter to fans, Naughty Dog revealed that it was “nearly done with development of The Last of Us Part II. We are in the midst of fixing our final bugs.”

The studio cited logistical reasons for the game’s delay: “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.”

The letter concludes, “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.”

Naughty Dog vice president and The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann wrote on Twitter that he was “extremely sad to deliver this news to y’all. Ultimately, the situation is out of our control. We hope you understand. Stay safe out there.”

The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Iron Man VR are the latest delays on a gaming calendar increasingly devoid of events, and the same seems likely to happen to upcoming game releases. E3 2020 was canceled earlier this year, while GDC 2020 was delayed to the summer. Wasteland 3, originally scheduled for May, has also been delayed to Aug. 28. With both of Sony’s big spring releases now off the schedule, it’s unclear what this means for Ghost of Tsushima, the publisher’s big June game. At the time of writing, this PlayStation 4 exclusive is still on track to release on June 26.

With all signs pointing to the health emergency getting worse in the coming weeks, it’s impossible to say how other game releases will be affected. For example, while Xbox head Phil Spencer has said the Xbox Series X hasn’t been delayed at this time, he admits things could change as the situation continues to evolve. Sony will likely have to make some hard decisions about the PlayStation 5 when the time comes as well.

We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.