More and more games have been getting delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic of late, and it’s likely that many more will follow suit. The latest – and perhaps the biggest – to have suffered such delay was The Last of Us Part 2. Interestingly enough, Naughty Dog and Sony both clarified that the game’s development is almost complete, and that it has been delayed because of “logistic issues“- i.e. the fact the retail launches of games are facing lot of uncertainty now, as we have recently seen with the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Resident Evil 3.
But is there a chance that Sony might choose to splinter the digital and retail releases of The Last of Us Part 2? While they figure out the logistics of how to get the game out in physical stores as quickly and efficiently as possible, might they also be considering to release the game digitally as per schedule to get it in the hands of audiences at the earliest?
Interestingly enough, that’s not completely off the table. Speaking with the PlayStation blog in their latest podcast episode, The Last of Us Part 2 director Neil Druckmann said that Sony haven’t yet made any final decisions on the game’s release, and options are still being considered amidst the uncertainty of this rapidly developing situation.
“There hasn’t been a final decision yet,” Druckmann said. “Right now we’re just reacting to- it’s a different retail chain, whether we could get physical copies to people, is the internet infrastructure there to support all countries?”
“This is a worldwide game that people in every country are waiting for and we want to make sure that we’re fair,” he continued. “If we just get [the game] to a small fraction of people, what does it do to all the people who don’t get it?
“We’re right now looking at all sorts of different options. What’s the best way to get it to all our fans as soon as possible? That’s going to take time for things to shift and to figure things out and also see where the world’s at: things are changing from day-to-day.”
The Last of Us Part 2, due out exclusively for the PS4, currently has no set release date. A bunch of beautiful new screenshots from the game were recently revealed, which you can take a look at through here.