The Agony Of Wayting: Max Payne 3 Slips
Plain old videogame industry news time, folks. The game known only as Max Payne 3 has been delayed by two months, and will now land in May rather than April. Only it's worse than that for us - the console version is due on May 15 in the US but not until May 18 everywhere, which is pointlessly insulting enough in itself. But on top of that, the PC version isn't due until May 29 in the US and flippin' bloody June 1 in the UK and elsewhere. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.
What a waste of everyone's time, especially as the bulk of PC sales will be digital so an additional international delay there is utterly futile pandering to those retail shmucks who so like to ruin everyone's fun. Who do Rockstar think they are, some kind of rockstars?
No specific reason is given for the delay, but Take 2 (Rockstar's corporate overlords) boss Strauss Zelnick officially stated tha "We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our Company." So, polish, presumably.
As for the reason it's slipped even more on PC? No word, but my guess is "no real reason at all, just to comply with the wishes of some megacorp or another or because someone's got a bee in their bonnet about piracy." Still, it's a damned sight closer to the console release than GTA IV and LA Noire were, which is something.
Rockstar boss Sam Houser, meanwhile, offered only the most unilluminating of all unimlluminating press release statements:
“Max Payne 3 brings powerful storytelling back to the action-shooter genre. Rockstar Studios are delivering a game that’s both incredibly cinematic and very, very intense to play.” What an insight that gives us.
So, May 29/June 1 it is. Oh well, at least I've got Postal III to play in the meantime. What strange horrors await me? I will be sure to tell you, in diary-based form.