Sony Delays 'Uncharted 4' To May 10 To Provide 'Extra Manufacturing Time'

News
By Rexly Peñaflorida
published

One week ago, the hype for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End continued with a new trailer that showed portions the game’s story. However, the game’s publisher, Sony, is going to make fans wait a little longer, as the launch date was delayed once again. The new release date is May 10.

According to Sony, the reason for the delay was to “allow for extra manufacturing time,” as part of the publisher’s effort to “meet the considerable worldwide demand.” The company didn’t provide any specific details, but it seems that the added time will allow it to create more copies of the game.

Even with the two-week delay, the development team at Naughty Dog is sticking to its original schedule. The game is expected to “go gold” (which means the master version of the game is finalized and ready for the publisher) later this month in conjunction with the start of production.

This is the third (and hopefully final) delay in the last chapter of Nathan Drake’s story. The game was originally set to come out sometime in the latter half of 2015, but it was pushed back to March to allow for extra development time. Last December, it was delayed again to April 26 to give the team even more time to finish certain scenes and polish the overall game.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Rexly Peñaflorida
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dstarr3
    I just picked up the Jak and Daxter collection the other day. At this rate, I should be through Naughty Dog's catalog and caught up to this game by 2030, no problem!
    Reply
  • CraigN
    Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

    Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

    The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

    Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

    The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.

    Generally, I agree with you and am the first person to make the same point. However, the article says, "Even with the two-week delay, the development team at Naughty Dog is sticking to its original schedule." So, the game itself isn't going to be worked on during that delay. It seems to be entirely to produce adequate quantities physical copies to fulfill preorders.
    Reply
  • CraigN
    17599990 said:
    Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

    Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

    The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.

    Generally, I agree with you and am the first person to make the same point. However, the article says, "Even with the two-week delay, the development team at Naughty Dog is sticking to its original schedule." So, the game itself isn't going to be worked on during that delay. It seems to be entirely to produce adequate quantities physical copies to fulfill preorders.


    ^ This.

    I am all for games taking a delay when there is actually something being worked on.

    Game data being burned to Blu-Rays, packaged and shipped, is not part of the "development" process. It has no impact on "quality" issues. The fact that the date when the game goes "Gold" (when development on the title stops, and assets are frozen so they CAN be put to disks) hasn't changed schedules means to me that there's no reason for this outside of a manufacturing delay, which means there's no reason the game couldn't go live digitally on its original release date.
    Reply
  • FITCamaro
    The dev team will certainly still be working on the game after it goes Gold to fix remaining bugs and anything else that can be patched in. They will merely cut their release build when it goes gold. None of you must be software developers.

    And it won't be released on digital first because they don't do that.
    Reply
  • CraigN
    17602171 said:
    The dev team will certainly still be working on the game after it goes Gold to fix remaining bugs and anything else that can be patched in. They will merely cut their release build when it goes gold. None of you must be software developers.

    And it won't be released on digital first because they don't do that.

    Don't make sweeping statements about other people without knowing their educational/career background. Just makes you look like a jerk and doesn't actually contribute to the discussion. I do actually have a background in software, and am fairly familiar with how the usual process works.

    "They don't do that" =/= "They can't do that." There's nothing stopping any developer from making that leap from a technical standpoint, just a financial one. If it were truly just a manufacturing delay, there's no reason they couldn't just release the disk copies they have printed presently as well as the digital release. If there's something preventing them from having ANY physical copies available on release day, then I can certainly see the appeal of waiting.

    Obviously, yes, that time can be used to spend longer on a day one patch. But if their production schedule hasn't shifted, then that leads me to believe that in the grand scheme of things, that either isn't a huge concern, or, like how most other software devs operate, that's already being worked on in tandem with the team pushing towards the "gold" date.
    Reply