"The Last of Us 2," one of the most anticipated sequels might actually arrive in February 2020 if the recent reports are to be believed. The speculations spiked from one of the interviews of Ellie's voice actress Ashley Johnson. But, is it really coming early next year or it is just a part of the strategies to hype up the upcoming title?
The most talked about interview was made by Critical Role with Ashley Johnson, the actress behind the main protagonist's character in "The Last of Us 2." The interview was conducted by Critical Role's creative producer Brian Foster. The voice actress was asked during the interview on the release date of the game.
Surprisingly, Johnson starts mouthing out what appears to be the word February creating a distinct sound before Foster raised a follow-up comment. The actual exchange can be seen in the one hour and seven minutes mark. While it is futile to say that it is just a slip of the tongue, there are several reports and claims from others that could support this claim on the release window of "The Last of Us 2."
Jason Schreier of Kotaku last May shared on his official Twitter account that Hideo Kojima's upcoming game "Death Stranding" will be released in November 2020, which of course, turned out to be true. The Kotaku writer also revealed that based on his source, "The Last of Us 2" was bumped to a release on early 2020, possibly on February. Aside from this, Daniel Ahmad perhaps is best known as ZhugeEX, one of the experts in the industry previously stated in a thread in ResetEra that the current internal date of the game is February.
All these are unconfirmed, but it just makes sense that Sony would not want to release "The Last of Us 2" this year to prevent it from bumping against another massive title and a PlayStation 4 exclusive game "Death Stranding," which is officially slated to arrive on November 8, 2019. It is not also unlikely for Naughty Dog to schedule the highly anticipated sequel in the early part of 2020.
"The Last of Us 2's" predecessor was released on PlayStation 3 in June 2013. This year's last quarter release lineup includes "Jedi: Fallen Order," "Death Stranding," "Pokemon Sword and Shield," and "Call of Duty." It is a smart move for "The Last of Us 2" to allow some breathing room early 2020 with the list of games coming in the last part of 2019.
