14 DAY TRIAL // In the comments to a post on the PlayStation blog, Ron Eagle from Sony Computer Entertainment has detailed the reasons which made the PlayStation 3 title Killzone 2 to be pushed back to February 2009, instead of being released on the originally announced date of November 2008.
Killzone 2 is one of the most anticipated and controversial games that are set to come out on the PS3. It has been more than 4 years in development and it is set to push the limits of the hardware it will run on.
Guerilla Games first presented the game at E3 2005 with a video that looked great, but which was mostly pre-rendered and not real in-game footage. A lot of controversy raged around that presentation, as some people at Sony originally stated that the game on the PS3 would look exactly as the images seen by E3 visitors.
As more information on the game came out, it seemed that this could be that "killer app," the game that could make the PlayStation 3 more attractive than the Microsoft Xbox 360 to hardcore gamers. Continuing the story of the original Killzone, with a plot taking the player behind enemy lines as a commando doing a full-fledged invasion of the Helgast planet, the game looked very nice as developers demonstrated the first and the second level in late 2007 and early 2008. But, unexpectedly, Sony announced a delay for the game to February 2009, which prompted some gamers to say that there were development issues with Killzone 2.
Ron Eagle set the record straight by saying "Just wanted to add a quick reply on the 'delay' of Killzone 2 to Feb 2009. To be clear, there is nothing wrong or causing a delay to the development of the title. We (SECA) had to look at the fall calendar with SOCOM, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Resistance 2, plus some PSN titles and make a decision where each game should come out. Killzone 2 was moved to Feb 2009 to make sure we didn't have three shooters in the marketplace competing for retail dollars during the same holiday season,"
So it's not development issues that's holding things up, it's the fact that it would be competing for sales with SOCOM and Resistance 2, which are more established franchises for the Sony gaming consoles. And let's face it, if you make to the holiday season, then February is not that far away.