Yesterday, during the annual PlayStation’s State of Play event fans of the console were treated with a lot of awesome news – new games, exclusive console content and more. However, as expected, Naughty Dog has stolen the show with the release date reveal for their upcoming game The Last of Us Part II. Ellie and Joel will return on February 21st, 2020.
In a special PlayStation blog post, the game’s director Neil Druckman was kind enough to share about the current state of the game, revealing some details about the production and the total runtime of the highly anticipated The Last of Us sequel. Here’s what he had to say:
“Thank you for being patient with us. Very patient. Even though we’ve been eager to share more about The Last of Us Part II and tell you its release date, we wanted to wait until we were close to wrapping up production and we were confident in the date itself. We have a bunch of new stuff to share with you today… starting with the fact that on February 21, 2020, The Last of Us Part II can finally be in your hands.
We began working on this game over five years ago. It’s hard to describe the immense pressure of following up the first game. We know how much you love this world and its characters — especially Ellie and Joel. Believe me, we’re fans as well. We love them. Which is why we spent years crafting a game that we feel will do them justice, telling a nuanced story that deals with the core question: how far would you go to exact justice against the people that hurt the ones you love? It’s a highly emotional story with complex themes that benefit the world of The Last of Us. What we realized pretty early on is that we were putting together Naughty Dog’s most ambitious and longest game in our 35-year history. To tell this kind of story the game needed to be massive.”
Hm… You say The Last of Us Part II is the longest game in Naughty Dog’s history? Count us in! After watching the new trailer and finally seeing older Joel we want February to come ASAP. However, prior to the launch of the game, some lucky people are getting early access to the first two levels of the new title. According to Neil Druckman, their embargo drops tomorrow, so expect to see some real gameplay videos popping up all over the place in the next few days.
