Has The Last of Us Part II Been Banned in the Middle East?

One of the most anticipated games of the year is Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, and the game is set to launch next month. Bad news for fans in the middle east though, because it's probably banned in that area.

As some posts on Reddit have revealed, The Last of Us Part II isn't available for pre-order in the PS Store pages for the UAE and Saudi Arabia. IGN has also confirmed that though searching for the game could lead to avatars and themes related to TLOU, the game itself isn't available.

It would make sense (historically) that the Middle East would ban the release of The Last of Us Part II in their area, seeing that the game is going to focus on Ellie who is revealed to be gay in the trailers. With a film like Onward being banned for one throwaway line about a cop being gay, I would expect the censors to go up for a game where the driving force is likely Ellie's romantic relationship with new character Dina.

Oddly enough, Cyberpunk 2077, which is said to include LGBT elements as well, is available for pre-order in the same stores that banned TLOU 2. We don't know the reason as to why it's still allowed, but maybe this could be a hint that The Last of Us Part II missing in the playstore could be some kind of glitch. At this point, I think it gets a pass since the LGBT elements aren't the main part, but that's just my guess.

The Last of Us Part II is set to come out on June 19.

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