While the developers at Naughty Dog are preparing for the launch of their upcoming title The Last of Us 2, they have been plagued by one controversy after the other. It surely hasn’t been perfect these past few months at Naughty Dog.
The director of Naughty Dog recently came forward and acknowledged the leaks about the game, but said that the ending hasn’t been ruined and mentioned that there are a lot of crazy fan theories out there which are completely wrong.
While Naughty Dog has found the culprits behind the leaks, they did show us a few things that we as fans were hoping to never see. Do not worry as this post will not reveal any spoilers but will speculate on what Naughty Dog has been hiding instead.
The Last of Us was released in 2013 and after a thunderous release and appreciation to the game, the developers began working on a sequel. In between the studio also worked on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End which gave the perfect send-off to one of our beloved grave robber of all time.
Coming back to The Last of Us 2, the entire gaming community was first shocked and bewildered by the leaks which were leaked by an ex-employee who was unsatisfied with the job crunch and unfair treatment of the employees.
This can and might very well work into Naughty Dog’s hand as out of nowhere The Last of Us 2 has become the most talked-about game in 2020. While this year has a lot of big launches along the way, there was a fear creeping up that The Last of Us 2 might get submerged in all of this.
Queue in a pandemic to that mix and rising Battle Royale games, fps shooter and so much more. There was a genuine fear that The Last of Us 2 would somehow get sidelined in all of this.
The leaks were made public on April 26th, around 50 odd days before the release of the game. This has allowed the fans and the entire public, in general, to bring up the issue and let it slide away with just enough curiosity and hope to wait for the release.
Google trends show that when the leaks were released online, the interest was maximum as expected on that day, but since then it has only halved down with genuine articles about the game surfacing on top and the waste away of the uproar sifting downwards ever since.
Since the leaks came out over half a million players have played the game since this will certainly be a huge boost for Naughty Dog. The leaks might have ended up doing more good then intended damage for Naughty Dog and The Last of Us 2 as now it no longer has to stand on its merit alone.
Millions of copies will be sold of The Last of Us 2 without a doubt and most will be to find out how much of the leaks were true, while this amazing an estimate provided by GameStat shows that there were about 880,000 active The Last of Us players online in the month of May.
While the leaks may seem disastrous from the outside, Naughty Dog is going to have a successful launch regardless of what the public opinion has been in the past.
Also Read: The Last Of Us Part II On PS4 Pro Resolution Is 1440p
The leaks though do not paint the entire picture and all we can do now is wait a couple of days to find out how big of a launch The Last of Us 2 will be for Naughty Dog and Sony.
Sony has been gearing up for the release of its next-gen console the PlayStation 5 and this goes without a doubt that The Last of Us 2 will be optimized for the brand new console on day one.
Naughty Dog and Sony did the same for The Last of Us and it looks like history will repeat itself when Sony will announce that The Last of Us 2 will be available on the PS5 on day one along with most of the other first-party PlayStation games.
The timing and nature of the leaks might just propel The Last of Us 2 making it the most successful launches of the PlayStation 4 generation of games.
