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The Last of Us Part II Rating Revealed

By Liz Lanier

The Last of Us Part II received an "M for Mature" rating from the ESRB.
The Last of Us Part II received an "M for Mature" rating from the ESRB. / Naughty Dog

The highly anticipated game The Last of Us Part II has officially been rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), as spotted on the upcoming game's official website by IGN.

Although the details of the rating are not yet on the ESRB website, the ESRB label on the game's website reveals that the rating is for "Blood and Gore/Intense Violence/Nudity/Sexual Content/Strong Language/Use of Drugs."

While the violent content is of no surprise to those who played the first game or those who have seen the trailers, the sexual content is comparatively uncharted territory for Naughty Dog.

Fans of the post-apocalyptic game The Last of Us have eagerly awaited news of the upcoming sequel, with developer Naughty Dog gradually releasing information in response over the past few years since it was first announced.

With release now just months away, speculation on story elements and multiplayer for the game is plentiful around the internet.

Around this time last year, even the release date of The Last of Us Part II was not yet known— and likely for good reason on Naughty Dog's part, as the later released launch date of Feb. 21, 2020 was pushed back.

Creative director Neil Druckmann wrote in a blog post about the delay in October of last year, explaining that the decision was deemed necessary in order to release the game to their standards and to deliver on fan expectations.

"[It was] as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality, Druckmann wrote. "At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team."

The Last of Us II Release Date

The Last of Us Part II is coming to PlayStation 4 later this year, with an official release date of May 29, 2020.