PAX East is currently underway in Boston, and there’s a lot of amazing things on display there for gamers to get their hands one.
One of those is the demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake, a PlayStation exclusive that is setting the gaming world on the edge of its seat.
But there was another highly anticipated PlayStation exclusive that was going to have a demo at the show. That was The Last of Us Part II.
The demo was cancelled by Sony over rising fears stemming from the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
Developer Naughty Dog was excited to present the demo to the PAX East crowd in Boston, because one of the earliest parts of the original The Last of Us game takes place in a post-apocalyptic Boston. Also, the first ever hands-on demo for The Last of Us was at PAX East in Boston back in 2013.
“We thought it would only be fitting to return to the city that started it all to give fans the first-ever public hands on with The Last of Us Part II,” Naughty Dog said earlier this year.
‘The demo was set to be playable for a full hour. It was called “Patrol” and it allowed players to take control of Ellie on a mission with her companion Dina.
Dina is a new character to The Last of Us, voiced by Shannon Woodward from WestWorld.
The two leave Jackson to hunt for infected and eliminate them.
It’s somewhat sadly ironic that a game that centers around a world ravaged by an outbreak has seen its first demo cancelled due to the potential for a real-life outbreak.
The Wuhan coronavirus has caused the cancellation or delay of a number of events throughout the gaming world as of late.
The Taipei Game Show in Taipei Taiwan was cancelled earlier this month as the virus made its way through Asia. However, the show’s organizers have claimed that it is only delayed and they are hoping to see it return during the summer months. The Last of Us Part II was set to have a panel at that show as well.
More recently, the upcoming annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was also cancelled as the virus has moved throughout Northern California via exposure. Much like the organizers of the Taipei Game Show, the team behind the GDC announced that it was hoping to postpone the event into the summer, but provided no actual dates.
The Last of Us Part II releases on May 29, 2020 on the PlayStation 4 console.
