It took a little extra time, but coronavirus delays have started to come for the video game industry. Today, Last Of Us and Uncharted developer Naughty Dog announced that it’s delaying The Last Of Us Part II indefinitely, explaining in a social media post that it will be unable to meet its May 29 release date “due to logistics beyond our control” (which is presumably referring to social-distancing guidelines, but the statement is weirdly vague). The statement notes that the developers are in the midst of fixing the game’s “final bugs,” so it’s close to being complete, but apparently whatever caused this logistics issue just can’t be avoided at this time—but seriously, what could the issue possibly be? Is something terrible happening right now that will just become stronger if we talk about it? Is the coronavirus actually Voldemort? Or is it like the Super Bowl and you’ll get sued for using the real name? Stock up on water for the Big Virus, sports fans.
Sony, which is publishing The Last Of Us Part II, is also apparently scared of identifying whatever bad thing is going on, blaming an unnamed “global crisis” in a tweet announcing the delays of the Last Of Us sequel and Marvel’s Iron Man VR game.
Whatever’s currently going on in the world, Naughty Dog says it’s hoping this won’t be a long delay and it will keep everyone updated about how things are going. Meanwhile, HBO is still working on a TV adaptation of the first game, which is about some kind of mysterious global crisis that causes logistical issues for a guy named Joel and a young girl named Ellie.