Red Dead Redemption slips

Ambitious Wild West title Red Dead redemption has seen its release date pushed back from April 27th to May 21st

However, there have been mixed claims as to the reason of the move. Rockstar itself told Kotaku that the delay was to allow for extra development, stating:

We will always opt to take a bit longer to polish and fine-tune a game to be as perfect as possible when we think it necessary. With Red Dead Redemption, we felt that these extra few weeks will make a big difference in helping us deliver you an experience beyond your expectations.”

However, in a conference call to investors Take-Two CEO Ben Feder claimed that: We shifted the launch of the game by several weeks into the third quarter. We believe this is the optimal time frame to release what is being hailed as the next generation of sandbox games.”

Also delayed is crime-sim Mafia II, which was initially due out in the first half of this year, but will now be out some time between August and October.

Games still on track for release in Take-Two’s Q4 – or the three months ending October 31st – include LA Noire, Max Payne 3 and Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, though the publisher cryptically hinted that one of those may also suffer further delay.