Well folks, I have some terrible news to share with you. It looks like Gears of War 3 has been given a new release date, due to a new marketing strategy that Microsoft wants to implement for next holiday season. By the looks of things the games original release date for April 2011 was well on track according to Executive Produce at Epic Games Rod Ferguson, but due to the crowded market in the spring and the release of Bulletstorm in February, next fall makes more sense.
Its never good to hear about a great game like Gears getting pushed back six extra months, but from a developer perspective I can only imagine this will turn into more polish and tuning time for the game. The bar has been raised quite a bit since the last installment of Gears of War, and Epic Games are known for trend setting, so it will be interesting to see how the extra time will be used. Below are some quotes from Microsoft and Epic Games regarding the changes.
Microsoft Says:
“Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011. 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 Says:
“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.”
I imagine that some new content or footage should be on the way soon the sooth the pain of the news, so info will be posted accordingly.
William
well that fucking sucks… now there's nothing to look forward to for the first NINE!!! months of 2011! at least from a gaming perspective!