The wait for Naughty Dog’s indefinitely delayed sequel to The Last of Us just got a lot more frustrating. Footage allegedly captured from a near-final build of The Last of Us II was leaked on YouTube over the weekend, causing a cascade of major plot spoilers to flood social media channels and game forums. Update: Naughty Dog has responded to the leak.
Princess Peach’s Leading Role And More New Releases
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The footage, uploaded to YouTube over the weekend, seems to depict gameplay and what looks like pivotal cutscenes from the eagerly anticipated game. Some of it is in English, some in German. All of the footage contains debug information in the lower left of the screen, listing level names and other data. Because of this developer-level data, some news outlets are reporting rumors that the footage was uploaded by a disgruntled Naughty Dog employee. The original uploader had their channel removed from YouTube, but not before the footage was downloaded and re-upped by other accounts. As of this writing, I can find many of the clips with a basic Youtube search.
I have watched the leaked footage. If it is as legitimate as it seems, it completely ruins many of the game’s big reveals and twists.
There’s a massive spoiler thread on gaming forum Resetera. Threads keep popping up on the game’s official Reddit. I’ve seen several clips and spoilers posts on Twitter this morning. The internet is basically a minefield of The Last of Us II spoilers. It’s a good day to learn how to filter out words and phrases from your social media and web searches, such as characters’ names and the game’s title.
Update 4/27 2:30 PM: Since this post went live this morning Sony announced a new June 19 release date for The Last of Us II and Naughty Dog has tweeted a statement regarding the leak.
Update 5/01 1:30 PM: Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony has said it has determined the source of the leak as an outside source not affiliated with Sony or Naughty Dog.
