14 DAY TRIAL // Bad news for BioShock and Mafia fans, as Take Two, the company that will publish the highly anticipated sequels of the extremely popular franchises, has revealed that they will both be pushed back from their projected release in late 2009 into an early 2010 time frame.
BioShock 2 was scheduled to arrive this fall, on October 30 in Europe and November 3 in North America. The title will now be pushed back into the fiscal year 2010, as revealed by Take Two, more concretely the calendar 2010, according to the chairman of the company, Strauss Zelnick.
“We concluded that moving the release of BioShock 2 into fiscal year 2010 was the right decision for the product,” Zelnick said in a statement. “We believe the result will be a more compelling consumer experience and a better performing product in the marketplace.”
During the same press conference, the company also reduced its financial outlook on the fiscal year of 2009, as it didn't have a lot of high-quality titles that sold many copies. But these two new delays means that the company will have a very solid 2010, when, alongside the BioShock and Mafia sequels, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption will also be launched.
“The decision to shift a release date is never an easy one, especially with a product as highly anticipated as BioShock 2,” said Take Two's Ben Feder. “We felt that it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve.”
BioShock 2 is currently in the works at 2K Marin, and promises to take players back to the underwater city of Rapture, but this time they will be placed in the diving boots of the original Big Daddy, which will see its Arch nemesis in the form of the Big Sister.
Considering other recent announcements of delays, it seems that both the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 will be quite busy for gamers all around the world. Hopefully this won't result in a dry summer release schedule, as it is during these current months.