Ubisoft announced today that it’s delaying the release of its highly anticipated Far Cry 3 until Dec. 4 in the U.s.. The French game publisher previously planned to publish the first-person shooter on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on Sept. 4.
Ubisoft also said it’s releasing Just Dance 4 on Oct. 9 in the U.S. on the Wii, Xbox 360 with Kinect, and Sony PlayStation 3 with Move. Rocksmith debuts with new content for a bass guitar on Oct. 16. The company also reaffirms its financial guidance for the current fiscal year. Last year, Ubisoft generated $1.3 billion in sales.
Ubisoft offered no explanation for the Far Cry 3 delay. It recently showed the big-budget, open-world game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the industry’s largest trade show, in Los Angeles. A year ago, the company introduced the story, the main character, and the villain. It was creepy to see such unrestrained violence right next to the beautiful, realistic visuals of an island paradise.
In the game, you play Jason Brody. Your girlfriend is missing. You’re stranded on a beautiful tropical island. And the mercenaries on the isle are psychotic. No one is quite as crazy as this character, Vaas (pictured above). In a trailer, Vaas says the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting shit to change.” He adds, “The first time somebody told me that, I thought they were bullshitting me. So, boom, I shot him.”
The game uses the new Dunia 2 engine with a physics system integrated into it. It is under development at Ubisoft Montreal with help from three other studios. Far Cry 3 is part of the company’s slate of high-profile games, and the delay may put it into a tougher competitive window against other titles of the fall such as Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.