The Last of Us VGA 2012 Trailer

The minds behind the Uncharted series have made no secret of the fact that The Last of Us will be charting a new course for the company and, quite possibly, the industry at large. Unfortunately for fans, Naughty Dog's commitment to a releasing an uncompromising product is more important than meeting the previously announced release date.

As a result, Sony has officially confirmed that The Last of Us has been pushed from its original release date of May 7 to one month later - June 14, 2013.

Decisions like these aren't made lightly, and nobody has ever questioned the fact that Naughty Dog is hoping to outdo themselves. The story of survival and kidnapping(?) in a post-apocalyptic urban setting is a far cry from their work with Uncharted, and saddled with the responsibility of possibly being one of the PS3's final triple-A releases.

The Last of Us Demo God of War Ascension

Everything that's been shown of the game has seemed as promising as expected, even if the developers are keeping quiet on the ways in which The Last of Us will "redefine gaming" forever. But dedication comes with a cost, and for Naughty Dog, that cost is a delayed release. Here's their official statement and reasons for the new release date:

"As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realize just how massive Joel and Ellie’s journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog’s internal high standards.

"As a team we pride ourselves on setting a very high quality bar for every aspect of our games — gameplay, story, art, design, technology and more. We want to make sure The Last of Us raises that bar even further — for ourselves, and most importantly, for you, our fans."

There aren't going to be many who criticize Naughty Dog for postponing given their reasoning, since their track record proves that they don't need any external influence to push themselves to the limit of their abilities. Calling The Last of Us "easily the longest campaign Naughty Dog has ever made" is sure to get fans excited regardless of when it's released, after the team has already promised that the multiplayer component will be strong enough to "stand on its own."

It's unclear if this delay will affect whatever date Sony had in mind for the demo access granted with a purchase of God of War: Ascension, but it's possible it might be unchanged. Whenever a release date is announced, we'll keep you updated.

The Last of Us will be released on June 14, 2013, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. A demo of the game is expected prior to release.

-

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: PlayStation Blog