With COVID-19 aka the coronavirus impacting the entire world, thousands of people have been forced to work from home or in many cases stop working altogether. Every industry has been impacted by this and that includes the world of video games. Many games have managed to release despite the current state of the world, but it has not come without its difficulties. Games such as Ring Fit are currently sold out everywhere and no one is sure when you’ll be able to get it again.
With making video games becoming more difficult and time-consuming for developers, there’s a growing sense that delays for titles are on the way. After all, it’s hard to finish making a game when the entire company is forced to a work from home status and others are being forced to let go of employees due to the current economic situation. One highly anticipated game has already been delayed. The Last of Us 2, already delayed once, was officially delayed again on Tuesday when Sony announced that the current “global crisis” is preventing them from giving fans the launch they deserve.
Update: SIE has made the difficult decision to delay the launch of The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Iron Man VR until further notice. Logistically, the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 2, 2020
Game developer Naughty Dog shortly followed up with a statement of their own. They stated that while the game is pretty close to completion there are some logistical issues that would make selling the game right now difficult. Most likely on the physical disc side.
A message from us about the delay of The Last of Us Part II: pic.twitter.com/aGsSRfmJ8a
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 2, 2020
It was only a matter of time before games started being delayed due to the effects of coronavirus. It’s disappointing that The Last of Us 2 can’t come out on time, but hopefully, this means that when everything has finally calmed down it can release to a world more ready for a massive release.