Some sad news hit headlines just two days before Christmas, as Naughty Dog announced that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End had been delayed for a second time from March 2016 to just a generic ‘Spring 2016’ release window. Now, the game’s developer have confirmed that April 29 is the new date that fans of the series will want to mark on their calendars or in their diaries.
Back before we entered into 2016, Naughty Dog said that they didn’t take the decision to delay the game lightly, being well aware of how long they’ve made fans wait up to this point. But the delay is for a good reason, so the studio says – just a little bit more spit and polish is needed before Uncharted 4 goes gold.
We already knew that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End had been pushed back to a general ‘Spring 2016’ release date, but now we have a firm window.
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).
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. To you, our loyal fans, we hope you’ll accept our sincere apology. We know many of you have been waiting patiently for Nathan Drake’s final chapter, and now we humbly ask you to wait a bit longer.
While the delay is definitely disappointing, at least Drake’s next adventure hasn’t suffered the same worrying fate as Xbox One exclusive, Scalebound. News just recently broke that Platinum Games’ RPG has been pushed back by an entire year. Ouch.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End releases exclusively for PlayStation 4 on April 29 – roughly a month later than previously scheduled.