Original (April 27, 2020): Sony has just provided the updated release dates for both The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. Both of these titles had suffered some unfortunate delays due to the little global pandemic thing. It was just a couple of short weeks ago in early April when we first learned that The Last of Us Part II was "delayed indefinitely."
Today, Sony has once again provided actual release dates for these titles by way of a PlayStation Blog announcement. The Last of Us Part II will now hopefully be released on June 19. That's right, you can once more begin a release day countdown for The Last of Us Part II. This game has already slipped once from a planned February release to May, and then from May to "indefinitely" before this new date was announced.
As for Ghost of Tsushima, we will see that one arrive on July 17. Ghost of Tsushima was originally set to be released on June 26, 2020 for the PlayStation 4. Ghost of Tsushima has been in development at Sucker Punch for quite a while now. It was first revealed nearly two years ago during E3 2018.
Remember when Sony did E3 events?
Remember E3?
Now, let's talk briefly about the elephant in the room here. I am, of course, talking about the numerous leaks that came out over the weekend for The Last of Us Part II. We currently do not know the full details as to the who or the why, but it seems as though someone with ties to Naughty Dog leaked a ton of details about the game. These details came mostly in the form of video snippets that showed off some key story beats. These videos were not from any previously released trailers or footage.
A little warning was tossed up on our Twitter about how you can help yourself in avoiding potential spoilers via Twitter. There are also ways in which you can block certain keywords through the use of Chrome extensions. I personally don't use any such blockers, and have no recommendations to provide on which are good and which ones are not. However, a search of the Chrome Web Store should help you find something that meets your needs. Keep in mind that these extensions from the Chrome Web Store should work for both Chrome and the Chromium based Edge browser. I'm sure there are Firefox extensions that also do the same.
The source of the leak is allegedly an employee of Naughty Dog or someone that was brought on for contract work. The rumor says that this individual is upset over a pay dispute and, as a result, leaked these new and very spoiler filled clips to the Internet over the weekend. There has been no verification of any of these claims about the individual or their motivation.
The clips themselves are very real and very much full of spoilers. Beyond actual gameplay and story sequences, there is at least one video that shows off what looks to be a developer specific level select tool that showcases the names of every level and sequence in the game.
For obvious reasons, I will not post any links to any of the leaks or videos that are circulating. If you want, you can seek that out on your own. Please try to avoid discussing spoilers openly here. If you must talk about them, be sure to use spoiler tags, like the options listed below.
- Block Spoiler: [spoiler]Text[ /spoiler]
- Inline Spoiler: [sp]Text[ /sp]
If you want to remain spoiler free, I wish you all the best of luck. With a leak this significant, there are a lot of people that will do whatever they possibly can to spread those spoilers when you least expect it. This includes things like stream chats, YouTube videos, YouTube comments, YouTube thumbnails, any and all social media, voice chat in multiplayer games, text chat in multiplayer games, comments on message boards, and so on.
Update (May 1, 2020): According to GI.biz, Sony has confirmed that the identity of those responsible for the leaks "were not affiliated with Sony Interactive Entertainment or Naughty Dog."
Neither Sony nor Naughty Dog commented any further, saying "that the information was currently subject to an ongoing investigation."
To say that the leaker is "well and truly screwed" may be the biggest understatement of the year so far.
