When Naughty Dog released The Last of Us in 2013, it took the video game industry by storm. The Last of Us was unlike anything seen before, setting a new bar for interactive and cinematic storytelling in the medium, and creating a post-apocalyptic world that was more focused on the relationship between its leading characters, Joel and Ellie, than being just another action game. In fact, The Last of Us was written as a standalone experience with an ambiguous but definitive ending, leading toward a lot of roads for The Last of Us 2, where its story will be eyed by all fans of Joel and Ellie.
Fast forward to 2020, Naughty Dog is in the final stages of development for the highly-anticipated sequel The Last of Us 2 and a Last of Us TV series is in early stages at HBO, replacing the previously announced movie and adapting the events of the first game to live-action. With The Last of Us 2's release date now delayed indefinitely from its original May 29 schedule due to COVID-19, it's time to take a look back at the development of what is easily one of the most anticipated video games of the year.
The Last of Us: The Game That Changed it All
After the release of the critically acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Naughty Dog split its staff into two separate teams with one team working on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and the other starting production on what would become The Last of Us. In the years since its release, The Last of Us has been universally considered one of the greatest games of the generation, praised for everything from its narrative to gameplay, characterization, visuals, musical score, and more. Then, in 2014, Naughty Dog released Left Behind, a single-player story DLC that explored the story of how Ellie became infected. The Last of Us Remastered, a PlayStation 4 port, was released at the end of 2014 featuring enhanced visuals, an improved frame rate, and all previously released DLC.
Development on The Last of Us 2 Begins
Soon after the release of The Last of Us Remastered on PlayStation 4, early development began on a sequel. At the time, Naughty Dog was already hard at work on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, and after the departure of game directors, Amy Hennig and Justin Richmond, The Last of Us directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann were chosen to lead development on the game. Uncharted 4 became Naughty Dog's first priority with the bulk on the studio coming over to help out on development due to large portions of the game being scrapped entirely, including "eight months of [Hennig]'s story."
Following the release of Uncharted 4 in May 2016, The Last of Us 2 went into full production with Druckmann returning as creative director. Game director Bruce Straley did not return and instead took a sabbatical after burn out from The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, later announcing his departure from Naughty Dog in September 2017. Westworld's Halley Gross was brought on as an additional writer to assist Druckmann with the narrative, and Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau were chosen as additional directors.
The Last of Us 2 Announcement and The Lost Legacy
The Last of Us 2 was officially announced in December 2016 during PlayStation Experience. Set five years after the events of the first game, both Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson were confirmed to be reprising their roles for the sequel, only this time Ellie would be the game's protagonist. Creative director Neil Druckmann stated that the sequel would be a revenge story that centers on hate, as opposed to the first game's which centered on love. Naughty Dog also chose to go with the name "Part II" instead of the standard numeric sequel, as the second game would go hand in hand with the first as a single story.
Throughout 2016 and 2017, Naughty Dog was still working as multiple teams, with a small team sectioning off for the standalone single-player DLC, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Once The Lost Legacy released in August 2017, the teams were merged and the entire studio was working on The Last of Us 2. The team began work on motion capture in 2017, signifying that the majority of the game's story had been complete.
A second trailer was shown at Paris Games Week in 2017 revealing four new characters, Yara, Emily, Lev, and a fourth unnamed woman voiced by Gears 5's Laura Bailey, as well as a villain group. An extended gameplay trailer (shown above) was shown during Sony's E3 2018 introducing players to Dina, a new character and love interest for Ellie, and showcasing her fast and agile combat style.
The Last of Us 2: Delayed and Delayed Again
A fourth trailer was shown late last year during Sony's September State of Play live stream, finally announcing the game's release date, February 20, 2020. However, the initial release date was short-lived, being delayed to May 29, 2020, less than a week later, which according to Neil Druckmann was done in order for the team to "bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality." The delay was likely also in part related to allegations that Naughty Dog has a terrible crunch-culture, with 12-hour workdays seemingly lasting for months on end.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only delay that The Last of Us 2 would receive. On April 2nd, Sony announced that both The Last of Us 2 and Marvel's Iron Man VR would be delayed indefinitely due to COVID-19. In a separate statement, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann confirmed that development on the game was almost complete and the team was saddened by the news. Both Sony and Naughty Dog wanted to ensure that everyone had access to the game at the same time and couldn't deliver on that goal in the current climate, therefore removing the game from PSN entirely and issuing refunds until a new release date has been figured out.
The PlayStation 5
Despite growing concerns over COVID-19, Sony remains determined that the PlayStation 5 will release in Holiday 2020. On the other hand, both Marvel's Iron Man VR and The Last of Us 2 were delayed indefinitely from their original release dates of May 15 and May 29 respectively. However, Suckerpunch's Ghost of Tsushima is still targeting its June release. These changes present two major questions: Will The Last of Us 2 take over Ghost of Tsushima's release date, pushing the later back? Alternatively, will The Last of Us 2 launch in Fall 2020 as a PS5 launch title instead, although the latter is admittedly unlikely.
Right now, Sony is yet to announce any first-party game in development post The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, or which games will be releasing as PS5 launch titles, exclusive or not. Sony and Naughty Dog are also determined to keep The Last of Us 2 as a PS4 game and considering that the PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4, players will be able to take advantage of the new hardware regardless. It's likely Sony will save The Last of Us 2 until closer to the launch of PlayStation 5 in an effort to help boost sales, yet there's almost no way that it would be shifted to a next-generation exclusive this late in the game.
The Last of Us 2 is in development for PlayStation 4.