Motorstorm and Yakuza delayed

Two key console releases have seen their release dates pushed back in Japan following the terrible destruction suffered by the country at the end of last week.

Andriasang reports that Sony’s Motorstorm: Apocalypse was scheduled for release this Thursday (March 17th) but has now seen its release date changed to simply TBA.

In addition, Sega has cancelled the planned release of zombie action outing Yakuza Of The End, which was also due out on March 17th.

Both publishers cited "various circumstances" as the cause of the decision.

The former game would have proved particularly problematic for Sony, seeing as it’s set amongst the ruins of an earthquake-ravaged fictional US city. Yakuza, too, sees fictional city Kamurocho brought to its knees by a zombie outbreak.

Reports have also claimed that publisher Irem has cancelled the release of Disaster Report 4, while Sony is suspending production at six of its domestic plants.

The online components of titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 Online have been closed and Square Enix has said the online functionality of some of its titles will close for a period.