If you somehow missed that The Last of Us: Part II and Iron Man VR have been delayed with no new release date in sight, you might have learned about this through an extra $60 showing up in your bank account.
Both games, which were delayed indefinitely due to distribution issues following the coronavirus pandemic affecting a worldwide launch, have not only been pushed into the ether and refunded, but have been taken down from the PlayStation Network store altogether. This is presumably to prevent more people from trying to pre-order the games while they’re in a weird release limbo, but it really doesn’t paint a great picture that this particular issue is going to be resolved any time soon.
Both The Last of Us: Part II and Iron Man VR were set to launch in May, with Last of Us developer Naughty Dog being particularly vocal about the sequel to the 2013 game being near complete. But the decision was ultimately out of either Naughty Dog or Iron Man developer Camouflaj’s hands, and Sony made the call to hold both games back until further notice.
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It’s worth noting that, as of this writing, these delays haven’t affected other Sony-published games like Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, which is set to launch in June. However, Sony stated in a tweet alongside these delays that while it didn’t have any other delays to mention yet, it would keep fans posted should any more changes have to be made to the company’s schedule down the line.
The Last of Us: Part II in particular has had its fair share of delays outside ones caused by the coronavirus pandemic, having been delayed out of its originally projected February release date to May not even a month after the original release date was announced.
While Sony has been adamant that these issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic won’t affect the PlayStation 5’s holiday 2020 launch window for now, the company hasn’t been making its way through this worldwide crisis unscathed. Recently, Sony made the decision to intentionally slow download speeds in both Europe and the United States in an effort to alleviate the increase in home internet usage while everyone stays in self-quarantine.
Comparatively speaking, Sony’s approach seems more extreme than other companies who have delayed their games during the coronavirus outbreak. The Outer Worlds’ Switch port was delayed due to concerns around the virus, but has since gotten a new release date for June, with plans for both digital and physical copies to be sent out in just a few short months. Last week, Wasteland 3 joined the list of delayed games, but has been given a concrete new date in August. If some companies are looking forward three to five months, maybe we could hope to see The Last of Us: Part II and Iron Man VR sometimes in July or August, but that could also be wishful thinking.
