Gears of War 3 Delayed... Until Fall 2011... UPDATED!

[ProfessorLayton]

http://kotaku.com/5652552/gears-of-war-3-delayed-at-least-five-months

It looks like Epic's Cliff Bleszinski was more than just three days off when he told Jimmy Fallon on national TV that Gears of War 3 was hitting on April 8.

The next day Microsoft shifted the date a bit, saying the game would actually be hitting on April 5, 2011. Today the publisher is shifting Gears 3 a bit more... to the fall of 2011.

And they say the, let's just call it a delay, has nothing to do with development time and everything to do with marketing.

"Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011," the Microsoft statement reads. "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."

This is really a shame... I was really hoping for it to come out in March so I'd have Bulletstorm and Gears of War 3 around the same time. This might be technical, but to me it seems more because of marketing, as Kotaku also guesses. I mean, I thought a big game like that coming out only a month after their other big game didn't make much sense, plus people will still be playing Reach by that time... I don't know, but I'm a bit disappointed. Hopefully this means they're adding a little more polish to make it shine when it does come out.

UPDATE: CliffyB says (via Twitter [http://twitter.com/#!/therealcliffyb]): "Yep. Gears 3 has been moved to Holiday 2011. News incoming shortly that will be quite the silver lining. Have faith. " So it's completely official that it's been delayed, but apparently we have good news on the way. He later Tweeted this image [http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2010/10/bsbox.jpg] but I sure hope that's not the "silver lining" that he had planned. I'll update the story as it unfolds...

 

[bak00777]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont wanna wait

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

"Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011," the Microsoft statement reads.

Yeah right. At least, I hope not! Bleak year for games if that's true.

 

[Drop_D-Bombshell]

I am raging! This is my raging face... I cannot believe this, i've been so excited for april, now i gotta wait until fall? UGHH!

 

[Captain Pirate]

Cool, I can wait. Looking forward to it all the same, and that just gives me more time to play the second one.
Besides I'll have tons of games I've missed this giant year to catch up on.
Everything aside, Gears of War 3 will be a truly Epic game.




[small]Sorry, had to make the pun... [/small]

 

[ssgt splatter]

Go suck on a railroad spike Microsoft!
This better be a cruel joke.

 

[Stevey Boy]

Yeah right. At least, I hope not! Bleak year for games if that's true.

A bleak year for games?

What about Bulletstorm, DNF, Dead Space 2, Deus EX HR to name a few?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

You can't really blame them for moving one of their biggest games of the year to a time where everyone is gonna be spending the most.

Fall and winter are probably the Publishers best friend when it comes to marketing video games.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Yeah right. At least, I hope not! Bleak year for games if that's true.

A bleak year for games?

What about Bulletstorm, DNF, Dead Space 2, Deus EX HR to name a few?

I'm just saying that if Gears is the "biggest" release, that's not a good thing overall. It wasn't meant to suggest that no good games were coming, just that I pray Gears isn't the "biggest".

To rephrase: I hate Gears of War.

 

[Stevey Boy]

Gotcha

 

[Justanothergamer300]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
oh well
I guess ill play some gears 3 while drinking hot chocolate

 

[Vrex360]

From a business standpoint this is probably a good idea, I mean Halo: Reach was obviously the big seller in Microsoft's collection for 2010 and it did very well, raking in 200 million copies sold in the opening weekend or something. With that kind of ridiculous amount of money pouring your way you probably have enough to last the rest of the year.
You probably wouldn't want to use BOTH your big IP titles in the same year, because there might not be much of a large lineup waiting for them in 2011 so in that respect it probably makes sense to hold back and wait until the next 'void' in game sales and then they can fill it up with Gears 3.

It's frustrating but it's probably good for business sense.

 

[Rusman]

I personally couldn't care less but I guess it does suck for the people that actually like the series.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont wanna wait

Neither do I, but I'm sure that Bulletstorm can fill the void...

 

[TPiddy]

I'm willing to bet you this is in response to a major title PS3 has for next year.... PS3 doesn't have anything major for this year's holiday release schedule as both systems are dropping their motion gaming crap on us, but at least we got Reach and Fable III this year. I'll bet PS3's got some major titles for next holiday season and this is 360's answer to that.

 

[Robyrt]

This is a really smart business move. They have a guaranteed strong title for holiday 2011, they can release Bulletstorm next spring without competing with themselves, and there are no worries about losing their fan base or getting lost in the holiday noise.

 

[Nomanslander]

Honestly, ever since I played the Vanquish demo Gears 3 hasn't even crossed my mind....=/

 

[Manji187]

So what? With all the other great games coming out in the meantime the waiting should be easy.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Yeah right. At least, I hope not! Bleak year for games if that's true.

Say what you like about Gears of War, it's going to be a massive game and I wouldn't be surprised if it outsells Halo Reach.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

One, the boxart looks pretty cool. I can't wait for that game

and Two...NOOOOOOOOOOOO *sad fangirl dies in a locust related incident*