First it was October 2012. Then it was February 2013. Now the release date for BioShock Infinite is March 26, 2013.
Irrational Games' next title already sounds it'll be worth the wait. But, as announced by studio head Ken Levine, the delay is to make the game even better by fixing bugs. Eurogamer quotes Levine:
"When Rod Fergusson came on board we looked at the game. He was there for about a month and he said, 'look, I've been looking at the schedule and looking at the game and frankly you could really benefit from another three or four more weeks for polish and bug fixing.'
"We talked about it. I knew I'd probably get beat up in the press a little bit about it. But at the end of the day, if it's going to make a better game we're going to do it.
"So the new date is March 26. That's my bad news."
On the Irrational Games site, Levine writes:
Work on the game is now down to final polish and bugfixing. In order to give the team a few more weeks of this polish, the release date of BioShock Infinite is March 26th.
We know that this is going to ruffle some feathers. But we're willing to take the heat to make sure that BioShock Infinite is 100% the game our fans deserve.
The new date puts BioShock Infinite in the same month as Tomb Raider, SimCity, God of War: Ascension and Gears of War: Judgment. Tough competition, sure, but based on Stephen Totilo's hands-on experience, it might be able to hold its own.