The majority of DD editors and readers probably won’t care about this. But seeing as I’m a poor soul who hails from the UK, I have to bring this to attention. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has had its European release date pushed pack to quarter 3 of 2008, meaning it will not release until some time after June. The same also goes for Australia. This is some bullshit. Plain and simple. Nintendo just final smashed all of its European fans right in the face.

Us European gamers are no strangers to this: waiting 6+ months for a game to get released after its North American debut, but it still stings and still pisses us off. I really cannot understand why there’s a 6 month gap. And I’m not buying any crap about localization. It doesn’t take 6 months to localize from the North American code of the game. It’s not Twilight princess, so it’s not like there’s shit load of text to work through. Plus, Nintendo could’ve been decent and did what they did with the Wii itself and also Super Mario Galaxy - which is to release within all regions within the space of a month.

After 15 years you would’ve thought attitudes at Nintendo and other Japanese development studios would’ve changed regarding the European (and let’s not forget Australian) releases of games, but nope. It’s the same old shit. Europe had to wait 6+ months for Kingdom Hearts II, 6 months for Trauma center: Second opinion (a game that Australia are still waiting for) and now 6 months for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It’s official that Japanese developers do this for fun. I’m almost certain that Masahiro Sakurai is sat in his local Izakaya right now with Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata, pissing themselves laughing, drunkenly yelling the words “Europe”, “They”, “Bakayaro” and “Bitches”.

In what could be a big “could have seen it coming” moment, Take Two and Rockstar are delaying the release of the much anticipated fourth entry of the Grand Theft Auto franchise to next year on April, instead of the intended October 2007 release date. Chairman of Take Two Strauss Zelnick clarified in a statement that “Certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected, especially given the commitment for a simultaneous release on two very different platforms.”

Zelnick also added “the final say” to delay GTA IV was with him, but that “This wasn’t a decision we took lightly. This wasn’t a decision [Rockstar] took lightly.” Having reviewed a build just a day prior to the announcement, Take-Two felt that there was no way it could meet the game’s October 16th release date.

An understandable oversight, seeing that the GTA series have always been pushing the zenith of the console it was usually on. Still, this further reinforces the fact that all release dates for ALL videogames will never be final, and that delays will always be inevitable. Hit this sentence for the press release.

Technorati : delay, gta, rockstar, sandbox game, take two