Skyward Sword likely Delayed til Fall

Nintendo conceded today that Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will likely be delayed from “early this year”,  til Fall.  Nintendo had said the game be would be at the beginning of 2011, but with very little shown of the game since E3, a delay seemed likely.

At a recent quarterly financial presentation, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake for the DS is expected to ship before Skyward Sword.  At the 3DS presentation in New York, Nintendo said Zelda would not be released in the console’s extended launch period, which will last from the Console initial release on March 27th through this year’s E3, which ends on June 9th.

Knowing all that, Iwata basically said the game will be released no earlier than mid-june.  AAA titles are almost never released during the summer, so realistically the game has chance of actually hitting shelves  before September.

Via GamesRadar

Publisher Pushes Back “Red Dead Redemption” Release

Publisher Take-Two announced today that they will be delaying the release of Rockstar’s upcoming western, Red Dead Redemption, by a about a month.  The game was originally set to ship on April 27’th, but Take-Two said that resetting the launch to May 18’th would be; “…the optimal time frame to release what is being hailed as the next generation of sandbox games.”

The only notable change between the two dates is that “Redemption” now falls in the third quarter of Take-Two’s fiscal year:   Most likely, Take-Two shifted the release to somehow make the company look better for its shareholders.  Since Rockstar had nothing to do with the shift, it makes sense to believe that the delay was not over development issues.