The final installment in Epic Games’ third-person shooter trilogy, Gears of War 3, is coming to retail shelves later than anticipated. The developer and Microsoft have delayed the game until Fall 2011 simply so it could be "the marquee title for the holiday season."
"Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011," said Microsoft in a statement. "The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011. However, we’ve elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season."
Rod Ferguson, executive producer at Epic Games, confirmed the delay on their end to EuroGamer and reassured that the decision was strictly business.
"I know fans are going to be disappointed with the new release date, but rest assured that this is a business decision between partners, and not a quality issue," stated Ferguson. "Gears 3 was on track to be the most polished Gears of War game ever when it released in April, and this additional time allows us to polish it that much more before it hits shelves next fall."
So now expect Gears of War 3 to release for the Xbox 360 next fall, not this coming April.
