During the latest episode of the PlayStation BlogCast, The Last of Us Part II Director Neil Druckmann talked about the situation following the delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
First of all, he was asked about the plans for a release, including the possibility of a digital-only launch.
Apparently not everything has been decided yet. The developer is considering “all sorts of options,” but it’s going to take time.
“There hasn’t been a final decision yet. Right now we’re just reacting to different… You know… It’s a different retail chain… Whether like we can get physical copies to people… What is the internet infrastructure there to support in all countries…
You know this is a worldwide game people in every country are waiting for and we want to make sure we’re fair. If we just get it to a small fraction of people, what does it do for all the people that don’t get it?
We’re right now looking at all sorts of options. What is 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 is at. Things are changing from day to day.
Druckmann also talked about the possibility (or lack of thereof) to at least release the demo shown to press a while ago.
“I’ve been getting that a lot and people just don’t understand that it’s very different when you have a demo for the game that you can release at a convention or press event. You can have people from Naughty Dog watching to make sure it’s all working well.
Actually, when we did the press demo we just had the whole game there on the disk and we just cut out a piece, so people played that, but obviously you can’t do that when you ship it worldwide on the PSN. It has to have way more safeguards put into place.
It’s almost like you’d be starting from scratch to build that demo, and 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.
On top of that, Druckman explained that the game has improved greatly following the latest press demo.
“And also that demo is outdated now. It’s not a great representation of where the game is. The game has improved greatly since that press demo.”
He was also asked about the current situation of development and if the game is finished or there is more work to be done.
“We’re at the one-yard line I would say. There are still some bugs that we’re finding, that we’re squashing. We want to polish it as much as we can, taking our time to review each section and make sure it’s all Naughty Dog quality and… It’s there. That’s the frustrating part for is. The game is there. We just have to sit on it for a little bit and figure out what is the best way to get it to our fans.”
Druckmann then mentioned that the team is disappointed and “a little bit crushed” because they’ve been looking forward to releasing the game for years. Yet the kind words from the fans “give them the fuel” right now.
He added that they’re in the same boat with the fans, and we should hang in there, as we’ll “be with Ellie and Joel before we know it.”
If you want to see and learn more about The Last of Us Part II, you can also enjoy the latest screenshots, a recent trailer, and read some more recent comments by director Neil Druckmann on gameplay, graphics, and story, on top of some on the work of animators and producers.
Speaking of The Last of Us, we also learned that a TV series is coming to HBO, co-written by Druckmann himself, with composer Gustavo Santaolalla working on the music.
The Last of Us Part II is coming to PS4, but currently doesn’t have a release date.
[Thanks for the tip: Hammurabi]
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