Ghost of Tsushima, one of the PlayStation 4’s last major exclusives, will still be released in 2020, but the game’s release date has been pushed back slightly to July 17. According to Sony and the PlayStation team, it seems this delay can be attributed to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“As our teams at Sony Interactive Entertainment and Worldwide Studios approach development milestones and confront a world changed by COVID-19, we find ourselves having to adapt to today’s ever-changing environment,” reads a post on the PlayStation blog. “Amidst some disruptions to our working styles, we wanted to provide an update to PlayStation gamers who are eager to learn when our next exclusive titles will arrive to PlayStation 4.”
Ghost of Tsushima was originally set to be released on June 26, so this isn’t actually that significant of a delay in the grand scheme of things. Considering that The Last of Us Part 2‘s release date has now been pushed to June 19, we suspect that the delay of Ghost of Tsushima may have more to do with the PlayStation team’s desire to not have those two games release quite so close together.
Given that it sounds like Ghost of Tsushima was delayed one way or the other due at least partially to the spread of COVID-19, it’s interesting that it’s still set for a June release date at all. In their statement regarding the original delays of The Last of Us and Iron Man VR, the PlayStation team noted that “the global crisis is preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve.” That statement was made less than a month ago.