Rumors were leaked this morning that suggests The Last of Us may have been delayed. Originally, Naughty Dog's next epic was set to release on May 5th, but according to a US Best Buy pre-order notification it has been pushed back to June 18th. This may be due to Sony wanting to allow people to have hands-on time with it during E3, for it is their swan song for their system.
The only sites as of right now to have this new release date set aside from Best Buy is GameStop. While large shipping companies such as Amazon still have them listed under May 5.
Regarding the delay, this is bitter sweet. Naughty Dog is allowing themselves more time to polish the game before release, and if you have played previous Naughty Dog games they are rarely ever accused for bugs. With that said, it is still a delay and a 6 week delay at that. This is my most anticipated game of the year, by far, and an obvious game of the year contender. Naughty Dog is one of the most versatile studios in this generation of gaming. Their ability to craft wonderful narratives, solid mechanical foundations, and stable, beautiful visuals, is frankly, almost peerless. They never cease to surprise me with their over-ambition of pushing the system to it's limits, but never allowing it to be egregious. Needless to say, I am still very excited.
UPDATE - The delay is now official by Sony and Naughty Dog themselves as The Last of Us is now coming out on June 14th, the same week as E3 and several days off what certain retailers noted yesterday. This is not the first time Sony decided to release a big first-party game the same week as the biggest trade show in gaming as Infamous 2 was released at that same time two years ago. Is the delay to the new date worth it? Let us know in the comments below.
