The ground-up remake of The Last of Us is now being delivered to pre-orderers. That includes the Firefly Edition of The Last of Us Part 1, a limited edition PlayStation Direct bundle that includes a Steelbook, comic books, and a variety of DLC that costs $99.99 before shipping. The Last of Us Part 1 Firefly Edition is now out of stock, with no promise more will become available. But now there are some disappointed Firefly Edition buyers receiving damaged boxes in the mail.It's becoming an increasingly frequent trend that those who purchased The Last of Us Part 1's Firefly Edition are sharing pictures of damaged deliveries on social media. The boxes have been crushed, torn, trampled, and even had the shipping packaging glued to and ground into the game box itself.The issue appears to be that PlayStation Direct sent out the $100 Firefly Edition boxes in a simple padded manila envelope. As anyone familiar with sending valuable items through the mail can attest, a manila envelope regardless of its padding is going to get twisted along the way. It appears that the amount of glue used on these specific manila envelopes was also an issue, leaving dried glue and ripped pieces of the manila envelope stuck to the top of the $100 Firefly Edition box.
Every Firefly Edition of The Last of Us: Part 1 for PS5 was sold through the PlayStation Direct website. It could have chosen to use boxes for shipping instead of manila envelopes and didn't. It certainly should have, given these boxes cost buyers $100, but chose not to for whatever reason.
Firefly Edition buyers unfortunately have little recourse regarding the situation. The Firefly Edition is sold out and there's no indication it will ever be restocked, so it can't be returned. Even if it was, PlayStation Direct would likely use the same mailer. The best option for disgruntled The Last of Us fans is to try and get a refund, though it likely will require returning the Firefly Edition.
It's an awful situation all around. Those purchasing a $100 limited edition version of The Last of Us for PS5 are going to be the game or platform's biggest fans. These are the people PlayStation should want happy with their purchases. There's still an opportunity to do so. Hopefully, PlayStation Direct will issue a statement on the matter and offer buyers recourse soon.
The Last of Us Part 1 is available now on PS5.