The Last of Us Part II delayed, no new release date set by Naughty Dog & Sony

Ellie’s next chapter will have to wait a little longer before it can begin. Naughty Dog announced today it won’t be meeting its May 29 target for getting The Last of Us Part II in players’ hands, and — at least for the time being — that the game doesn’t have a new release date.

Naughty Dog tweeted out a message to fans just as the first reports of the game’s delay began hitting the internet, saying the studio is “in the midst of fixing our final bugs” and that current logistics prevented a release that assures “everyone gets to play The Last of Us Part II around the same time.”

While the studio didn’t directly attribute the delay to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its supply chain, Sony in a separate tweet confirmed that “the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve,” and that Marvel’s Iron Man VR game, originally expected to land on May 15, will also be delayed along with The Last of Us Part II “until further notice.”

With no new release date set, Naughty Dog at least sounds optimistic that the wait this time around will be brief. “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,” the studio wrote.

The pandemic already has proven at least somewhat disruptive for the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, likely one of this month’s (if not this entire year’s) most highly-anticipated games. With physical pre-orders for the game already piled high and the release already moved forward by one previous delay, FFVII publisher Square Enix sent out a message to fans this week confirming that shipping schedules would put the game in some players’ hands sooner than expected — accompanied, of course, by a plea from the studio not to spoil the game’s current-gen changes and new surprises online.