‘The Last Of Us Part II’, ‘Ghosts Of Tsushima’ Get Official Summer Release Dates

After several questions and concerns about release dates either being pushed back or expected to be pushed back, Sony announced the launch dates of The Last of Us Part II and Ghosts of Tsushima for the PlayStation 4. The announcement came from Sony’s official Playstation blog, which said the two games will drop about a month apart.

The more anticipated of the two games is likely The Last of Us Part II, because that title was originally due to launch earlier this spring. As The Inquisitr previously reported, when its launch was delayed earlier this month, the Naughty Dog Studios said it didn’t know when the game would arrive.

Now Sony has said Part II is coming June 19. A month later, Ghosts of Tsushima will land on July 17. That sets up what could be a very big summer for Sony after disappointing its fan base with delayed releases because of the coronavirus outbreak.

While it was never confirmed by the company, rumors started shortly after The Last of Us Part II was pushed back that the issue wasn’t due to delays in its development, rather, the release was put on hold to ensure that both digital and physical copies of the game could be accessed at the same time. As those rumors were never confirmed, it’s not known if Sony has figured out a safe way to get physical copies mass-produced, or if they decided to forgo waiting to release the much-anticipated game and rely solely on digital downloads.

It is worth noting that — in their official release — Sony did say it is starting to see an “easing of the global distribution environment.” However, the timing of the announcement for The Last of Us Part II has raised some eyebrows in the gaming industry, as several leaks from the game have started circulating on the Internet.

Over the weekend, rumors started that a disgruntled developer had handed over the entire script for the game. There has been no confirmation on whether or not the leaked script or story beats are accurate and Naughty Dog so far hasn’t addressed the supposed leaks.

With the official release dates for both titles, it appears the gaming public will be able to find out soon enough how accurate the information was. When The Last of Us Part II was delayed this spring, it was actually the second time Naughty Dog had to move its release date. It was originally expected to launch last fall.

Ghosts of Tsushima hasn’t had the same kinds of issues, though the new release date does mean a bit of a delay. The game from Infamous developers Sucker Punch was originally given a June release, but is being pushed back a month to make room for TLOU Part II.