Naughty Dog have revealed that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has had its release date delayed to April 26th, 2016. This is a delay of over a month, as it was slated for a March 18th release before this announcement. As far as why the team felt it necessary to delay, Naughty Dog went into that a bit during the announcement, stating that Uncharted 4 is their “largest Uncharted game to date.”

“Let’s cut to the chase, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has a new release date in North America of April 26, 2016,” reads the announcement from Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley of Naughty Dog. “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).”

Of course, any delay like this could have an impact on sales, but with a huge, AAA title that is exclusive to the PS4, and being used heavily in the marketing of that console, it is especially hurtful. Naughty Dog seems to recognize this though, saying “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.”

Any delay is unfortunate, but if it means we get a better, more enjoyable game out of it I think most fans would agree that it is a good thing to wait a bit longer. Let’s hope it turns out for the best when Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End hits PS4 on April 26th, 2016.

- This article was updated on:March 8th, 2018