By Daniel Nye Griffiths, Contributor

The Last of Us Creative Director Neil Druckmann has announced in a PlayStation blog that the hotly anticipated not-quite-zombies adventure is being pushed back just over a month to a June 14th date. Said Druckmann: As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realise just how massive Joel and Ellie’s journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog’s internal high standards. As statements of delay go, this one is setting out a bullish case for the decision – the game will be delayed, it will be better, no need to thank us. However, it’s hard to begrudge Naughty Dog another five weeks on what looks like one of the most interesting AAA games of 2013, and a possible contender for the last great PS3 exclusive. As Satoru Iwata noted, a late game ceases to be late after a few years, whereas a bad game remains bad forever. (Gearbox, who have delivered a rapid patch for some of the problems recorded around Aliens: Colonial Marines since its release, may be hoping to upset this orthodoxy.) This is interesting to me in part because I spoke to Druckmann perhaps an hour before this announcement – reminding us once again of the unyielding timetables of this kind of revelation, and the implicit tensions between news management and disclosure. After a certain amount of delay – somewhere between BioShock Infinite and Duke Nukem Forever – a delayed game starts being described as “troubled”. But if Naughty Dog can stick to a June Release, they should be fine. Whether the game lives up to expectations is a far more important question. I hope to get hands-on shortly, and will report back. Infect me with a zombifying fungus on Twitter. Actually, please don’t. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest