Gears III Delayed to Fall 2011

[John Funk]

Gears III Delayed to Fall 2011

Gears of War fans will have to wait a little while longer to see how it all ends, and by "a little while" I mean "at least five months."

Gears of War 3 was originally announced with a release date of April 2011 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99925-Gears-of-War-3-Gets-Release-Date-and-Trailer] - almost a year to the day after its official reveal. According to Microsoft, though, Epic's megaton shooter is being delayed to an unspecified date in Fall 2011.

In case you're worried that this somehow bodes poorly for the game's development one way or another, fear not: According to Microsoft, this had absolutely nothing to do with how Gears 3 is shaping up, and everything to do with a gaping lack of big-name 360-exclusive titles for next year's holiday season.

"Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011," says the Microsoft statement announcing the delay. "The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the spring of 2011. However, we've elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season."

Epic chimed in on the matter itself, with executive producer Rod Fergusson offering his thoughts on the matter [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-01-gears-of-war-3-delayed-report]:

[blockquote]I know fans are going to be disappointed with the new release date, but rest assured that this is a business decision between partners, and not a quality issue. Gears 3 was on track to be the most polished Gears of War game ever when it released in April, and this additional time allows us to polish it that much more before it hits shelves next fall.

Next week we have a major multiplayer press visit at Epic HQ, and I'm really looking forward to the fans getting to see and hear about Gears 3 Versus multiplayer for the first time. Lots more exciting news to come.[/blockquote]

Five months for polish is a long time. I have a hunch that "polish" in this case means "playing Halo: Reach all afternoon."

(Via Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-01-gears-of-war-3-delayed-report])

Permalink

 

[Jared]

Why would they need to polish more if alraedy apparantly shinny enough to eat off?

Sounds like they jsut want an open opportunity to release the game with nothing around them

 

[Cherry Cola]

What a shame. I guess I'll have to continue listen to the Ballad of Clay Carmine a bit longer until I can actually know the third Carmine brother's fate.


Aaah, that's good miracle of sound.

 

[unacomn]

Five whole months? They have enough time to make another unfinished Unreal Tournament game in-between and complain that no one buys it.
I'm happy and all they thy have an IP that generates a lot of revenue for them, but maybe in 2011 they'll announce a proper Unreal Tournament game. One worthy of being called a successor to UT2004.

 

[Colonel Alzheimer's]

Damn, I'm going to be in college at that point. Fuck. Now I REALLY need to bring my Xbox with me.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Wow fuck you Microsoft, making us wait just so you can release it near Xmas. Unbelievable.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I have one thing to say: FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I guess it is time again for the Holiday Exodus.

 

[MercurySteam]

Gawd-fucking-dammint. My favorite release of next year and it gets pushed back, just like Bioshock 2 did last year. I guess I should have seen this coming but who knows what will be pushed back next? Brink? Portal 2? Duke Nukem: Forever?

At least BulletStorm is releasing on schedule, though the wait for Gears III better be damn worth it!

 

[SplashyAxis]

Well fuck. Although the big releases for next Spring are numerous, I can understand why Gears 3 would be moved in order to stand out a little more from the crowd.

It doesn't mean I'm happy about it though, I was really looking forward to Gears 3, and waiting until April was bad enough. Now we have to wait a year and a bit.

 

[Delock]

Five months for polish is a long time. I have a hunch that "polish" in this case means "playing Halo: Reach all afternoon."

Which might not be a bad thing in the end, as that unnamed planet in Halo 3's legendary ending might turn out to be Sera if 5 months of playing Halo happen to occur during polishing time. You know there's some part of you that wants to see Master Chief with a chainsaw demolishing the Locust because he doesn't play cover-based combat, even if it is just the most childish part.

Anyways, this brings up a great point for Microsoft: you need some big namers. Halo has ended officially to a large group of fans, Gears is (more than likely) ending with this one, don't depend on a sequel for Alan Wake unless you want to wait a long time, don't expect Crackdown to shine again (especially since the first developer went under and the second seems to be lacking in the idea department), Fable 3 is just coming out this month so you'll need to wait a bit for another one, Mass Effect has officially crossed consoles and Dead Rising went with it.

 

[Decabo]

Fuck you, Microsoft.

 

[Im Nightmare]

Wow you people are stupid, this can only make the game better. [face_plain]

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

I find it odd that they would actually say that publicly. "We have no other games all year, so we needed Gears to fall back a bit to keep the money coming in later on." Sounds like they could do with some new IPs. I'm sure the extra 5 months will make the game as tight as possible, but it's an excessive delay just to fill in more of Microsoft's calendar.

 

[John Stalvern]

God dammit. That game was going to be my summer main.
I hope Reach ages better than Halo 3 did for me.

 

[technoted]

What a crock of shit.

 

[Sovvolf]

Well, while I'm a little disappointed that I won't be playing Gear of War 3 for another 12 months... I am grinning at the fact that they'll have 5 extra months to polish a already polished game. Also... would I rather have it rushed to be released for this years Christmas release?... NO!! Remember how that turned out for KOTR II?.