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LAIR Pushed To Next Month

Posted by Zonk on from the bad-news-for-the-station dept.

LAIR, the much-anticipated title featuring combat from dragon-back, is a very important title for Sony and the PlayStation 3. Its the first of the AAA slated for the end of the year for the trailing platform ... and so far things don't look good for the title. Now, the company has announced that LAIR has been delayed until early in September. "Due to an extra step in QA testing to enhance the community features in the game, the release of LAIR, originally set for August 14th, has changed to September 4, 2007. Natural challenges that arose while finalizing the offline game to include key online features - such as leaderboards and medal systems - have led to the difficult choice of pushing back the release date. We appreciate everyone's excitement and patience for the game and look forward to its release on September 4."

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Are we surprised? by GrayCalx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is happening to 50% of the new releases. Probably higher for big-name titles. I completely made up that statistic btw, but isn't it just about common now to view a release date as only a suggestion?

    1. Re:Are we surprised? by feepness · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why game companies think they can pinpoint a release date when more then 65% of commercial aps that go through (apparently) little to no QA can't even hit their deadlines is amazing to me. They don't think they can. But they hope they can get close. They have to get a manufacturing slot for their game reserved 6 months in advance. They have to line up advertising in print, TV, and online months in advance. For some games "it will be done when it's done" works because it will get the press (and bought) when it's done. Most others do not have that luxury.

      It's not the game company driving the dates, it's the rest of the industry pushing the game company.
  2. Okay here goes my karma. by Khaed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is offtopic, so get your mod points handy. But:

    I am really sick of the following two terms, and they seem mostly confined to slashdot (NONE of my gaming friends outside of /. have even heard them): AAA Title, and SKU. The former just sounds stupid. Oh noes, AAA? What about AAAAAAAA?! AAA? Like, the battery size?

    Are there B titles? O titles? S titles? So could there be a BOOBS title? (Would that be those volleyball games?)

    Both of these terms have come around somewhat recently, and it irks me. It reminds me of computer terminology thrown out there on bad TV by an idiot: "It has Megagigs!"

    Seriously. You guys sound like marketing idiots using buzzwords.

  3. It's better this way.. by M0rph3v5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Honestly.. I actually praise that they delay the game only for the reason that when I get the game in my hands I won't be bombarded with bugs that aren't fixed or spotted by QA.. which if anyone forgot, means QUALITY ASSURANCE.. emphasis on the assurance part and bigger on the quality part. They want to make the game fool-proof of glitches that can cause for negative gameplay. All they're doing right now is pleasing their customers by providing good quality software. Final note.. many games in the past have had delays on release dates but they do it because they don't want to just shell out some p.o.s. that could possibly ruin their fanbase and cause them to never be able to make another game because the previous one was 'buggy' and didn't meet the gamer's expectations.. after all.. isn't it in the end all about the end-user? they after all are the ones paying $60 out of their pocket.

  4. zonk bias by ch0ad · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ok i am new here but is it not quite obvious to everyone that the editors here have a strong personal bias towards (or in this case against) certain consoles. off topic i know... but as a ps3 owner it's quite annoying having my favourite news site slating the ps3 for *any* reason at all, even regarding stories that are about positive things.

    ps3 gets a price drop: article "ps3 price doesnt get lowered enough".

    ps3 gets a bundle/starter pack deal, article: "ps3 starter pack forces you to get games you may not want"

    or something along those lines anyway. this time the lair dev's want to spnd a few extra weeks tweaking the control scheme and somehow this is doom and gloom for the whole game, and next the ps3 will die!. ok, it's more subtly worded... but the bias is obvious to me.

    ... or am i alone in finding this a bit tiresome. i suppose i can never get enough of the microsoft blunders... maybe you just have to be of a specific mind set to appreciate the editorial style here, and if you dont happen to share the mindset you're on your own.