Ubisoft needs the extra time to polish the game even further.
If the upcoming selection of big Wii titles for 2009 seems slim, prepare for it to get even slimmer. Ubisoft has just announced the delay of Red Steel 2. The sequel to their launch title Red Steel, Red Steel 2 had hopes of slicing and shooting its way to Wii owners during the third fiscal quarter of 2009, but ended up being pushed into the fourth - ultimately giving it a 2010 release.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO, stated the following:
"We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft. Lastly, we are having to adjust our full-year targets to take into account the fall in business over the first half. The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year."
During a recent Ubisoft conference call, Guillemot explained that the delay was simply due to a question of polish. "The team was asking that they couldn't be with the level of quality on all the maps and all the game for the end of the year, so they had asked for more time to be able to come with a better product…"
The push to next year will definitely take its toll financially - costing Ubisoft a potential loss of millions of units of sales - but Guillemot hopes that the added work on the game will give it a longer shelf life, providing more sales in the long run.