Why PS4 Exclusive The Last of Us 2 Was A No-Show At Sony’s E3 2017 Briefing

the last of us 2

It speaks volumes for just how many people are anticipating The Last of Us 2 (officially called The Last of Us: Part II) that its lack of appearance at E3 2017 left many deflated.

Hell, even The Verge had a placeholder article ready for a new announcement, which somehow became published and appeared on Google News. It’s only the second most infamous jumping of the gun at E3, however, thanks to Ubisoft’s accidental leak of Skull and Bones announcing the game on their US YouTube channel half an hour early.

The Verge The Last of Us 2

In a conference full of new gameplay footage but precious few new games and release dates, expectations were high that Naughty Dog’s probable next masterpiece would close the show and elevate the entire briefing. It even looked like it would happen for a brief moment, with SCEA CEO Shawn Layden introducing the closing game as being from one of the best developers around.

The Last of US 2

It wasn’t to be, however. Layden was referring to Insomniac, the guys behind the upcoming Spider-man game. While that’s a solid title to close out an E3 briefing on, it probably wasn’t the one people were expecting.

After the conference, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann took to Twitter to praise the briefing while also asking people to focus on The Lost Legacy: the Uncharted standalone expansion which opened the show.

So where is The Last of Us 2? It’s simple: still deep in development.

When it was officially revealed at PSX 2016, Druckmann later let slip that they were preparing the footage for E3 2017, but Sony had convinced them to go with the PlayStation-only conference instead. This explains why Sony’s conference might have been slightly anticlimactic for some; there was a definite gap in the line-up.

This is backed up by Druckmann’s post on the official PlayStation blog, confirming that the game is some way off being complete, or even ready for a gameplay reveal:

“It’s still early days for the project—the game’s release is a ways off—but we couldn’t wait any longer to give you a glimpse of what’s to come.”

The only other concrete bit of news we’ve heard about The Last of Us 2 since its reveal is that it was under our noses all along. This poster, released a long time before the sequel was ever announced, shows Ellie’s new tattoo. Apart from that, it’s been crickets.

As predicted, we didn’t see The Last of Us 2, but as with everything in gaming, patience is a virtue – we don’t need anything else to be rushed out of the door.

If you’re looking for a likely opportunity to see the game again, look ahead to PSX 2017. In the meantime, check out all we know about The Last of Us 2 yonder.

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