At the VGA’s over the weekend, The Last of Us got a new trailer and a release date of May 7th. If that isn’t enough The Last of Us news to tide you over for the time being, the PS Blog has offered a few more details pertaining to the game as well as a look at the box art, which can be seen below:
Naughty Dog has announced that participating retailers will be offering the “Sights and Sounds” pack as a pre-order bonus. This will include the game’s official soundtrack, a dynamic theme for your PS3 featuring the game’s cover art, and two avatars for your PSN profile (Winter Joel and Winter Ellie).
In addition to the “Sights and Sounds” pack, Naughty Dog is working with GameStop to bring you even more pre-order bonuses, and this is where things get interesting. Pre-ordering with GameStop will get you:
- Bonus experience points for multiplayer
- A multiplayer melee attack booster
- Some extra starting in-game cash
- Special customizable character items for multiplayer
- Two special bonus skins for Joel and Ellie which will be unlocked after your complete the single player campaign
That’s right, GameStop pre-orders will net you MULTIPLAYER content. The Last of Us will have some form of multiplayer. While Naughty Dog is being tight lipped on it for now, the content above could offer some hints as to what it will entail, specifically the bonus skin for Ellie upon completing the single player campaign. This suggests that Ellie may be playable in multiplayer.
Replies from Naughty Dog to comments on the PS Blog seem to indicate that there are two separate teams working on the single player and multiplayer components of the game and they do not feel that this is a ‘tacked-on’ addition to the game. While most developers have said this about their games whether the multiplayer is tacked on or not, I remain openly optimistic that Naughty Dog is not simply remaking Uncharted‘s online mode, but time will tell.
With multiplayer confirmed for The Last of Us, does this increase your anticipation for the game or were you hoping that this revelation would never come? Will you be pre-ordering to get what is sure to be a stellar soundtrack? What do you think of the confirmed final box art for the game? Feel free to speculate in the comments and keep it locked to PlayStation LifeStyle as we bring you further updates.
