Highly anticipated sequel The Last of Us Part II is delayed due to the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, pandemic. Sony announced the change Thursday but didn’t provide any additional details.
Marvel’s Iron Man VR, another PlayStation 4 exclusive, is also delayed.
“[Sony Interactive Entertainment] 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,” Sony said in a tweet Thursday. “Logistically, the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve. Currently, there are no other delays to report, but we’ll keep you updated.”
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.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 2, 2020
It’s the second delay for The Last of Us Part II after Naughty Dog’s follow-up to 2013’s The Last of Us was pushed back in October 2019. The Last of Us sequel was originally planned to release on February 21, 2020.
Director Neil Druckmann said that the initial delay was made so the studio didn’t have to compromise its vision and that the team wishes “we could’ve foreseen the amount of polish we needed, but the size and scope of this game got the better of us.” The PlayStation 3 original received critical acclaim upon release and the sequel has been in development since 2014.
Marvel’s Iron Man VR is set to be Sony’s second exclusive title with Marvel, with the first being Insomniac Games’ well-received Marvel’s Spider-Man. Developer Camouflaj announced in January that it wouldn’t be able to hit its February 28 release date and was being moved to May 15. The studio said that the move was made to “deliver on our vision and meet the high expectations of our amazing community.”
This latest string of game delays is yet another example of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the games industry. Conferences and trade shows such as the Game Developers Conference and Electronic Entertainment Expo were postponed or canceled impacting planned game reveals and business deals.
Still, Sony expects the upcoming PlayStation 5 will come out as expected. While there has been little information provided on the new console, the company said it expects “no material impact” for its gaming and network services segment for the current fiscal year. The PS5 is expected to come out for the holiday 2020 season.
