Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2 has gone gold, which means that principle development has wrapped. While there will likely be a day one patch ironing out any remaining bugs, this is about as close to “finished” as a game like this gets. Co-director Neil Druckmann revealed the news on Instagram, along with providing his own thoughts in a series of videos.
It’s certainly been a rough journey for the game thus far. Starting with reports about extreme crunch at Naughty Dog, The Last of Us Part 2 would face further issues due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. This caused an indefinite delay due to logistics related to being able to have proper retail launch for the game.
Then last week, major amounts of the game’s plot were leaked online, spoiling several key moments and the ending. A new release date would be announced and publisher Sony identified the leakers in question (who are not associated with Naughty Dog or Sony). All that’s left now is to wait for the game’s release on June 19th and hope that nothing else happens in the meantime.