Could it be ready day 1 for PS5? That'd be a great cross gen way to make it push next gen.
F2p makes sense imo too. Naughty Dog also pushed microtransactions with past games.
Yes I think day 1 PS5 launch cross gen and f2p is the safest bet for it right now. It was less than a year ago they decided it wasn't going to make TLOU2 launch planned for Feb (5 months away from delay point). So with 5 months to launch they finally made the decision to separate it, suggesting that its in a position where it could have been launched in 5 months but they wanted longer. By November it would have been 14 months, which I think is probably plenty of time for them. Would also be a perfect counter to Halo's multiplayer.