The Last of Us Part 2 Has Gone Gold

05/04/2020 03:14 pm EDT

Naughty Dog has announced that The Last of Us Part II has officially gone gold. "Gone gold" here means that the game has reached the point where it is shippable, and copies of the master disc are officially going into production. The announcement came with a video from Naughty Dog VP Neil Druckmann in which he talked about going gold, the work the team has put in, and also, of course, those leaked spoilers.

"As I'm sure you've heard by now, The Last of Us Part II has a release date of June 19, 2020, but that's not what this video's about," Druckmann says in his brief video message. "We wanted to let you know that we have gone gold. So, back in April, we told you that due to the state of the world, logistics way beyond our control, we had to push the game, which gave us a few extra weeks to polish, and now that we have a release date, we have submitted our gold master. So that means, discs are starting to get pressed, and the executable's being put on the PlayStation Network."

"And you're going to have our game in just a few short weeks, and normally this would be a moment of celebration, you know, we'd be at the office having a drink, eating cake, but we're all stuck in our homes, and I just wanted to take this moment to congratulate the team that has pulled off the most ambitious game we've ever made," he continues. "And I know I've said this before, but you won't know to what degree until you get your hands on it, and just see the care that has gone into every detail from the level design to the mechanics, just graphically how the game looks, environments, art direction, characters, story, the audio design, the soundtrack -- oh my God, the soundtrack is so amazing -- that even for us who have played this game we can't even count how many times, we know it inside out, we're still emotionally moved. I've just finished a playthrough and I was crying by the end of it. And it's just pretty incredible, and I'm extremely proud of it."

In case you missed it, serious spoilers for The Last of Us Part II began to leak online recently, including footage of what claimed to be some incredibly pivotal moments in the upcoming video game. Naughty Dog eventually released a statement acknowledging the leaks, but Druckmann also addresses them here.

"The team is extremely proud of it, and we can't wait to hear what you guys think once you finally play it," he says. "And I just want to say on behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog, we want to say thank you to you guys. You know, you've been very patient waiting for this game for years with us and you're just a few weeks away from getting it. And a lot of you have sent us very sweet, encouraging messages along that time that have been very helpful as we make this thing, and the last thing I will say is... No matter what you've seen or heard or read, nothing compares to playing this thing from beginning to end. It's a video game; you gotta play it."

What do you think about what we've seen of the The Last of Us Part II? Are you excited to pick it up in June? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

The Last of Us Part II is set to release on June 19th. This comes after the game was initially delayed indefinitely, which has turned out to be "a couple weeks." You can check out all of our previous coverage of Naughty Dog right here.

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