Sorry, occult horror RPG fans, but your copies of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 aren't going to land in your hellfire hot little hands this week. Word from Atlus is that the game has been slightly delayed. Unfortunately, we have no specific new ship date for you to look forward to, but can chalk the delay up to Atlus demanding a higher standard for its PlayStation 2 release.

According to the company, a manufacturing error in the Persona 3 art book—included with every copy of the game—caused them to withhold the game until the issue can be resolved. On the silver lining side, this will result in a higher quality, better bound book.

Atlus sent the following e-mail notice to its fans earlier today:

Due to a manufacturing error with regard to the Persona 3 Art Book, the title will regretfully narrowly miss its scheduled ship date of July 24th, 2007. This was an unforeseen scenario, and one regretfully out of our control.

Presented with the choice of compromising on the quality of the art book, or shipping the game without said extra, we decided to have the art book redone with a higher quality binding, which will cause a very short delay in the ship date of the title.

While all other materials and packaging related to the game are complete, we were unwilling to sacrifice the art book, and as such will expedite the manufacturing process to the best of our ability in order to release the title as soon as is possible.

We appreciate your understanding and will release a formal announcement when Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 ships.

It's hard to fault them for maintaining quality standards, but doesn't make the wait any easier.

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