Originally slated to arrive in mid-March, developer Naughty Dog today confirmed plans to postpone the launch of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End by little over a month, meaning the PS4 exclusive is now on course for a release on April 26, 2016 and April 27 across North America and Europe, respectively.
Word comes by way of PlayStation Blog, where Creative Director Neil Druckmann and Game Director Bruce Straley explained the studio’s reasoning behind the sequel’s second delay.
This is our largest Uncharted game to date, and the team has been working incredibly hard to meet the challenge of closing out the game’s development in a timely manner. However, as we approached our final deadlines and started wrapping up the game’s levels, we realized that several key sequences needed extra resources to bring them to the finish line. After carefully considering all of our options, we decided to extend our schedule, making sure that we get a few more polish passes before submitting our gold master (the final disc for manufacturing).
Further in the frank post, Druckmann and Straley apologized for the brief delay, citing that “pushing the date is not an easy choice, and we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t feel in our hearts it’s the best course of action for the game.” Alas, Naughty Dog fans will remember that the studio employed a similar tactic with the release of The Last of Us and, at least according to those involved in the post-apocalyptic title, that extra four weeks transformed TLoU from a great game to a masterpiece. Will history repeat itself with A Thief’s End?
In light of today’s rearrangement, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – pitched as Naughty Dog’s conclusive chapter in the series – will now launch for PlayStation 4 on April 26, 2016 in North America.
