Neil Druckmann on The Last of Us 2 delay: "Things are changing day to day"

Neil Druckmann has appeared on the Official PlayStation Blogcast to talk about The Last of Us 2's delay. 

As spotted by IGN, the game's director joined the show to discuss where the game is at and the frustrations of being so close to launch and having to delay for reasons beyond Naughty Dog's control. 

Druckmann said, "Internally we know we have a great game and it’s just... we have to wait a little bit longer to get it out there to fans. I know fans are disappointed and believe me when I say this: we’re just as disappointed, if not more so, to not be able to get the game out on time."

On top of that, Druckmann discussed the nature of the delay and didn't rule anything out when it comes to the game's release as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues, saying that "things are changing day to day". 

He was keen to stress that there "there hasn’t been a final decision yet, right now we're just reacting", but it sounds like Naughty Dog is exploring every possible option when it comes to The Last of Us 2's release. He elaborated "Right now we’re looking at all sorts of different options: what’s the best way to get it to all of our fans as soon as possible? But that’s gonna take time for us to shift and figure things out, and also see where the world’s at."

The Naughty Dog vice president also spoke about how close the game is to being completed. "We're at the one-yard line... we want to polish it as much as we can, taking our time to review each section and making sure it’s all Naughty Dog quality. 

"The game is there. We just have to sit on it for a little bit and figure out what’s the best way to get it to our fans.”

Druckmann also spoke about the demo that was originally going to be at PAX this year (and which we wrote about in our The Last of Us 2 hands-on preview), and it sounds like it won't be coming to PSN. He said in regards to building and releasing the demo, "that's a massive amount of work that we don't want to put our team through, we'd rather put our focus on finishing the actual game and getting it to people."

It's well worth a listen if you have the time, with Druckmann's comments coming in the first ten minutes of the episode. 

It wasn't the only The Last of Us Part 2 news that emerged this weekend, with a couple of clips of the game leaking onto the internet. While they've since been taken down, one GamesRadar+ saw showed how players will be able to play Ellie's guitar using the analogue stick and touch pad. Sony has been vigilant in removing game clips, as you can see from this Reddit post. Fingers crossed we won't be waiting long to strum a few tunes in the adventure itself. 

We've started a new series that pits the team against each other with some fiendish gaming tests. Check out Challenge Radar Episode 4 here.